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A VISIT 



TO 



INDIA, CHBU, AND JAPAN, 



IN THE YEAR 1853. 



I 



BY 



5 BAYARD TAYLOR 




NEW YORK : 

G. P. PUTNAM L CO., 10 PARK PLACE, 

LONDON : SAMPSON LOW, WN & CO, 

1855. 



No,) . 



EyfTERED, according to Act of Congrese, lu the year 1855 

Bt G. p. PUTNAM & CO., 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States fbr the Southern 

District of New York. 






TO 

CHARLES A. DAISA, 

BT HIS 
ASSOCIATE AND FEIKND. 



PREFACE. 



With this volume ends the record of two and a half 
years of travel, which was commenced in the ^'Journey 
to Central Africa," and continued in the ''' Lands of the 
Saracen/' In bringing his work to a close, the author 
cannot avoid expressing his acknowledgment of the pub- 
lic interest in those portions of his narrative already 
published — an interest which has justified him in the 
preparation of this volume, and encouraged him to hope 
that he will again be received at the same firesides as a 
gossip and companion, not as a bore. 

Although the entire travels herewith presented em- 
brace India, China, Japan, the Loo-Choo and Bonin 
Islands, and the long homeward voyage around the Cape 
of Grood Hope, they were all accomplished in the space 



Vl PREFACE. 

of a year. Hence, some of my descriptions may bear 
the marks of haste, and I may, occasionally, have found- 
ed a judgment on the first rapid impressions, which a 
greater familiarity with the subject might not have con- 
firmed. I can only say, in answer to objections of this 
kind, that I have conscientiously endeavored to be cor- 
rect and impartial, and that, in preparing this work for 
the press, I have carefully tested the original impressions 
recorded on the spot, by the truer images which slowly 
ripen in the memory, and by the light of subsequent 
experience. 

The portions of the book devoted to India and China 
are as complete as the length of my stay in those coun- 
tries allowed me to make them. The account of my 
visit to Loo-Choo and Japan, however, is less full and 
detailed than I could have wished. In accordance with 
special regulations issued by the Secretary of the Navy, 
I was obliged to give up my journals to the Department, 
at the close of my connection with the Expedition. It 
was understood that they would be retained and em- 
ployed in the compilation of the Narrative of the Expe- 
dition, now being prepared by order of Congress. As 
my accounts of the most interesting events which I wit- 



PREFACE. VH 

nessed had already been published, and were therefore 
common property, I made application to Government 
for the favor of being allowed to copy portions of my 
journal — especially that part relating to Loo-Choo — 
which would have enabled me to supply the links be- 
tween the published accounts : but my request was per- 
emptorily denied. My papers will no doubt be restored 
to me, after the completion of the Government work : 
otherwise, like John Ledyard, in a precisely similar case, 
I shall have the alternative of an unusually tenacious 
memory. 

During my journeys and voyages in those remote 
parts of the world, I was treated with great kindness 
and hospitality by the English and American merchants 
and officials established there, and received assistance in 
the prosecution of my plans, which I take sincere plea- 
sure in acknowledging. I desire, especially, to return 
my thanks to Commodore Perry, to whose kindness I 
was indebted for the most interesting portion of my 
experiences ; to the Hon. Humphrey Marshall, late U. S. 
Commissioner to China ; to Capt. Buchanan, U. S. N. ; 
to Edward Cunningham, Esq., U. S. Yice-Consul at 
Shanghai ; to Henry G. Keene, Esq., of the E. I. Com- 



Vlll PREFACE. 

pany's Civil Service, and Capt. K. Baird Smith, of the 
Bengal Engineers ; and to the American Missionaries in 
India and China, from all of whom I received every 
assistance in their povi^er. 

B. T. 

New York, August^ 1855. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

Leaving Gibraltar— Voyage up tbe Mediterranean— Landing at Alexandria— Distribu- 
tion of Passengers— A Cloudy Day in Egypt— A Joyful Meeting— The Desert Vans— 
We Start for Suez— Cockney Fears — The Eoad and Station-houses— Suez— Transfer to 
the India Steamers— Our Passengers and Crew — The Mountains of Horeb — Red Sea 
Weather and Scenery— A Glimpse of Mocha— The Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb— An Ex- 
tinct Hades— The Fortress of Aden— Arrival— The Somali— Eide to the Old Town — 
Population of Aden— Temperature— The Fortifications— The Track of the Anglo- 
Saxon— Departure— Disregard of Life — Araby the Blest— Life on the Achilles— Ap- 
proach to India— Land I— The Ghauts of Malabar— Arrival at Bombay, , 13 

CHAPTER XL 

A Foretaste of India— Entering Bombay Harbor— I Reach the Shore— My First Ride 
in a Palanquin— Mr. Pallanjee's Hotel— Appearance of Bombay— Its Situation— The 
First Indian Railroad— English Hospitality— American Consuls and Residents— The 
Parsees— Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy— His Family and Residence— Parsee Faith and 
Ceremonies— Bridal Processions— A Drive to Malabar Hill— Tropical Gardens — Tax 
on Palm-Trees— A Hindoo Temple— The Jeejeebhoy Hospital— Dr. Bhawoo Da- 
jee, S4 

CHAPTER III. 

Hindoo and Egyptian Antiquities— The Hindoo Faith— The Trinity— A Trip to Ele- 
phanta— Scenery of the Bay— Landing on the Island— Front View of the Cave- 
Temple— Portuguese Vandalism— The Colossal Trinity— The Head of Brahma- 
Vishnu— Shiva— Remarkable Individuality of the Heads— The Guardians of the 
Shrine— The Columns of ElephanU— Their Type in Nature— Intrinsic Dignity of all 
Religions— Respect for the Ancient Faiths— The Smaller Chambers of the Temple— 
The Shrine of the Sterile— Tamarind Trees— Smaller Cave-Temples— Return to 

Bombay Island— Sunset in the Botanic Garden, 45 

1# 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IV. 



New-Tear's Day— A Tropical Gift — AParsee BuDgalow — Our Eeception — Chewing the 
Betel-Nut— The Nautch-Girls — Their Dances — Supper — Prejudices of Caste — The 
Bengalee Dance — A Gilded Bridegroom — Piercing Music— Ship-Building in Bom- 
bay—Education of the Natives— Their Appeals tp Pai-liament, . . . .55 

CHAPTEPv V. 

Preparations for Departure — "Warnings — Filial Gratitude — The Banghy Cart — A Night- 
Gallop through Bombay — The Island Eoad — Ferry to the Mainland — Despotism of 
the Banghy-Cart — Morning Scenery — The Bungalow— Breakfast — The Sun as a Phy- 
eician — An Army of Bullocks— Climbing the Ghauts — Natural Pagodas — The Sum- 
mit — A Kind Sergeant — The Second Day — Resemblance to Mexico— Natives and 
Villages — The Menagerie Man in Egypt — An English Cantonment — Dhoolia — The 
Lieutenant and his Hospitality— A Rough Road— Accident— Waiting in tho Jangle — 
The Bullock-Cart— Halt at Seerpore, 62 

CHAPTER VL 

Departure from Seerpore- Another Break-down— A Crippled Cart— Palasnehr— Indian 
Horses and Drivers— Jungle— The Banyan Tree— The Tamarind— The Natives of 
the Jungle— Military Salutations— The Town of Sindwah — Tokens of Decay— The 
Sindwah Jungles— A Dilemma— The Vindhya Mountains— The Station of Mhow — 
AiTival at Indore— The Town— The Rajah's Palace— The Rajah and his History— 
His Tastes — Hindoo Temples and their Worshippers— The English Residency- 
Cold Weather, 79 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Mail-Cart— Setting out from Indore— Night Travel— Stupidity of the Natives— 
Mussul men— Nearly an Accident — Scenery of tho Road— A Polite Englishman- 
Miseries of the Journey — A Tiger Party— Budjrungurh — Goonah — A Free Use of 
Hospitality — The Thugs and Robbers— Second Halt — Miss Burroughs — Going On — 
The Plain of Hindostan — Approach to Agra— A Landmark, . . . .92 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Akbarabad— The Modern City— The English Cantonments — Rev. Mr. Warren— The 
Fort of Agra- The Jumma Musjeed— Entering the Fort — Judgment-Seat of the 
Emperor — The Gates of Somnauth — Akbaf s Palace — Splendor of its Decorations — 
The Palace of Glass— A Cracked Throne— The Pearl Mosque — Tomb of Akbar, at 
Secundra— An Indian Landscape— Saracenic Art— Mission Printing-Office— The 
American Missions— The Agra Jail— Dr. Walker's System of Education— Arithme- 
tic in Chorus— Effect of the System, 101 

CHAPTER IX. 

Excursion to Futtehpore-Slkree— The Road Thither— Approach to the Ruins— Their 
Extent and Grandeur — The Palace of Rajah Beer-Bul — Perfect Condition of the 
Remains— Shekh Busharat-Ali — Age of Futtehpore— The Emperor's Palace- 
Rooms of the Sultana Mariam— Akbar's Tolerance— The Five Palaces — The I*iUar 
of Council— Profusion of Ornament — The Emperor's Salutation — The Elephant Gate 



CONTENTS. XI 

and Tower — The Durgah— Shekh Selim-Ohishti— He gives a Son to tbe Emperor — 
The Splendor of his Tomb— View from tbe Gateway— An Experiment— Tiffin in 
the Palace— The Story of the Kajah Beer-Bul and the Kuby— Last View of Futteh- 
pore-Sikree, 116 

CHAPTER X. 

Distant Views of the Taj— Tomb of Itmun e' Dowlah— The Garden of Eama— Night 
Worship— The Taj Mahal— Its Origin— The Light of the Harem— Portal and Avenue 
to the Taj— Its Form— Its Inlaid Marbles and Jewel Work— Tomb of Noor-Jehan— 
The Dome— Eesemblance to Florentine Art— Proofs of Saracenic Design— The 
Echo under the Dome— Beauty of the Taj— Saracenic Architecture— Plan of Shah 
Jehan— Garree Dawk— Leaving Agra— Night— Allyghur— The Grand Trunk Eoad 
—Distant View of Delhi— Arrival, 130 

CHAPTER XI. 

Delhi— The Mogul Empire at Present— Ruins of former Delhis— The Observatory— A 
Wilderness of Ruin— Tomb of Sufdur Jung— The Khuttub Minar— Its Beauty— View 
from the Summit— Uncertainty of its Origin— The Palace of Aladdin— Ruins of a 
Hindoo Temple — Tomb of the Emperor Humayoon — Of Nizam-ud-deen — Native 
Sam Patches— Old Delhi— Aspect of the Modern City— The Chandnee Choke— Ba- 
yaderes— Delhi Artisans and Artists— The Jumna Musjeed— A Hindoo Minstrel and 
his Songs— The Palace of Akbar II.— Neglect and Desolation— The Diwan— An 
Elysium on Earth- The Throne Hall— The Crystal Throne— The Court of Akbar II. 
— A Farce of Empire— The Gardens — Voices of the Sultanas — Palace Pastimes, 143 

CHAPTER XII. 

Departure for the Himalayas— " Laying a Dawk"— Last View of Delhi— A Eainy 
Night— Quarters at Meerut— The Dawk Agent— Hindoo Punctuality- Meerut— 
Palanquin Travelling— Tricks of the Bearers— Arrival at Eoorkhee— Adventures in 
Search of a Breakfast— First View of the Himalayas— A Welcome Invitation— Eoor- 
khee— The Ganges Canal— Its Cost and Dimensions— Method of Irrigation— The 
Government and the People — Aqueduct over the Selanee Eiver — Apathy of the 
Natives, 1^0 

CHAPTEE XIII. 

Native Workmen at Eoorkhee— Their Wages— Departure for Hurdwar— Afternoon 
View of the Himalayas— Peaks visible from Eoorkhee— Jungle-grass— Jowalapore 
—Approach to the Siwalik Hills— First View of the Ganges— Ganges Canal— Pre- 
diction of the Brahmins— An Arrival- The Holy City of Hurdwar— Its Annual 
Fair — Appearance of the Streets — The Bazaar— A Himalayan Landscape — Travel in 
the Jungle — A Conflagration — The Jungle by Torch-Light— Arrival at Dehra, 171 

CHAPTEE XIV. 

Reception by Mr. Keene— We start for the Himalayas— The Dehra -Dboon— Morning 
View of the Sub-Himalayas— Leopards— Eajpore— Wilson, the "Ranger of the 
Himalayas"— Climbing the Mountain— Change of Seasons— The Summit of the 
Ridge— Village of Landowr— Snow-Drifts— The Pole and the Equator— Rev. Mr, 



XU , CONTENTS. 

Woodside^Mast-Head of the Sub-HimaJayas — View of the Snowy Peaks — Grand 
Asiatic Tradition— Peculiar Structure of the Himalayan Kanges— Scenery of tbo 
Main Chain— The Paharrees — Polyandry — The Peaks at Sunset— The Plain of 
Hindostan — A Cloudy Deluge, 182 

CHAPTER XV. 

Return to Dehra— The Dhoon — System of Taxation— The Tea-Culture in India^Tea- 
Garden at Kaologir— Progress by Force — Ride to the Robber's Cave — A Sikh Tem- 
ple — A Sunny Picture — Sikh Minstrelsy — Rajah Loll Singh— English Masters and 
Native Servants— Preparations for Departure, 193 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Eide to Shahpore— The Rajah's Elephant^The Pass of the Siwalik Hills— I Resume 
the Palanquin— The Large Punch-House — Saharunpore — The American Mission — 
The Botanic Garden — A Dreary Journey — Travellers — Salutations — Return to 
Meerut— A Theft— Journey over the Plains — Scenery of the Road — The Pollution 
of Touch— Fractious Horses— Arrival at Gawnpore — Capt. Riddell — ^The English 
Cantonments, 208 

CHAPTER XVIL 

Crossing the Ganges— Night-Journey to Lucknow — Arrival — A Mysterious Visitor— A 
Morning Stroll— The Goomtee River — An Oriental Picture — The Crowds of Luck- 
now — Col. Sleeman, the Resident — Drive through the City — The Constantinople 
Gate— Architectural Effects — The Imambarra— Gardens and Statues— Singular Dec- 
orations of the Tomb — The Chandeliers — Speculation in Oude — Hospital and Mosque 
— ^The King's New Palace — The Martiniere — Royalty Plundered — The Dog and the 
Rose-Water — Destruction of the King's Sons — The Explosion of a Fiend — Misrule 
in Oude — Wealth of Lucknow — A Ride on a Royal Elephant — The Queen-Dowa- 
ger's Mosque — Navigating the Streets — A Squeeze of Elephants— The Place of Exe- 
cution — The Choke — Splendor and Corruption, 214 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Return to Cawnpore — An Accident— The Road to Allahabad — Sensible Pilgrims — 
Morning — Beauty of Allahabad — The American Missionaries — The Hindoo Festival 
— The Banks of the Ganges — Hindoo Devotees — Expounding the Vedas — The Place 
of Hair— A Pilgrim Shorn and Fleeced — The Place of Flags — Venality of the Brah- 
mins—Story of the Contract for Grass— Junction of the Ganges and Jumna— Bathing 
of the Pilgrims — A Sermon — The Mission — Subterranean Temple — The Fort of 
Allahabad, 229 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Orossiilg the Ganges— Pilgrims Returning Home — Vagaries of the Horses — Benares — 
Prof. Hall- The Holy City— Its Sanctity— The Sanscrit College— Novel Plan ol 
Education — Village of Native Christians— The Streets of Benares— Sacred Bulls — 
Their Sagacity and Cunning — The Golden Pagoda — Hindoo Architecture — Worship 
of the Lingam — ^Temple of the Indian Ceres — ^The Banks of the Ganges — Bathing 
Devotees— Preparations for Departure, 289 



CONTENTS. XUl 



CHAPTER XX. 



Moonlight on the Q-angea— The Unholy Eiver — Scenery of the Plains— Egyptian 
Landscapes — Sasseram — Mountains near the Soane Eiver— View of the Ford- 
Crossing — The Second Day's Journey — ^The Hills of Behar — Meeting with an Ac- 
quaintance — Wild Table-Land — Sunset — A Coolie Trick — The Aborigines of India- 
Triumph of the Eed-haired Lady — Horse Gymnastics — The Lady Defeated — Mun- 
glepore — An Eccentric Night-Journey — The City of Burdwan — Tropical Scenery — 
Wrecked on the Eoad — A Wrathful Delay— Wrecked again — Journey by Moonlight 
—Another Wreck— An Insane Horse — The Hoogly Eiver — Yet Another Accident — 
A Morning Parade — The End of " Garree-Dawk," 250 

CHAPTEE XXL 

Impressions of Calcutta— The Houses of the Residents — Public Buildings and Institu- 
tions—Colleges—Young Bengal — Museum of the Asiatic Society— The Botanic 
Garden — Calcutta at Sunset — Scene on the Esplanade — English Eule in India — Its 
Results — Its Disadvantages — Eelation of the Government to the Population — Ten- 
ure of Land -Taxes— The Sepoys — Eevenne of ludia— Public Works — Moral Chan- 
ges — Social Prejudices, .... 262 

CHAPTEE XXn. 

Departure from Calcutta— Descending the Hoogly Eiver — An Accident— Kedgeree — 
The Songs of the Lascars — Saugor Island— The Sandheads— The Bay of Bengal- 
Fellow- Passengers— The Peak of Narcondan — The Andaman Islands — Approach to 
Penang— A Malay Garree — Beauty of the Island — Tropical Forests — A Vale of Par- 
adise — The Summit — A Panorama— Nutmeg Orchards — The Extremity of Asia — 
The Malayan Archipelago — Singapore — Chinese Population — Scenery of the Island 
— ^The China Sea— Arrival at Hong-Kong, 275 

CHAPTER XXIIL 

rrip to Macao— Attached to the U. S. Embassy— On Board the Steam-Frigate Susque- 
hanna— Departure from Macao — The Coast of China- The Shipwrecked Japanese — 
Their Address to the Commissioner — The Eastern Sea— The Archipelago of Chusan 
— ^The Mouth of the Yang-tse-Kiang— The Steamer Aground — Eumors of the Eeb- 
els — Arrival at Woosung— Entering the Woosung Eiver — Chinese Junks — Appear- 
ance of the Country — Approach to Shanghai— Arrival, 287 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Commissioner decides to visit Nanking— Preparations for the Voyage— Departure 
of four Japanese — The Susquehanna leaves — Woosung — Bush Island and Tsung- 
Ming— We strike the Blonde Shoal— The Chinese Pilots— Escape of a Boat— Off the 
Shoal— Mr. Bennett's night cruise after the Boats— Unfavorable Eeports— The Re- 
turn — End of the Expedition— Successful Trip of the Susquehanna in the Summer 
of 1854, 297 

CHAPTEE XXV. 

Life in Shanghai— The Eebels Expected— My Journal— The Fall of Nanking— The 
Grain Trade— Soo-Chow Threatened— Barbarities at Nanking— Eumors Concern- 



XIV CONTENTS. 



ing the fiebels— Capture of I<orch as— Threats towards Foreigners— Alarm of the 
Taou-tai — A Rebel Proclamation — Imperial Rewards and Pardons — Col. MarshalPa 
Proclamation— Nanking Besieged by the Imperial Army^Flight from Sbanghai— 
Sir George Bonham — Meetings of the Foreign Residents— Ransom fur Shanghai^ 
Soo-Chownot Taken — Uncertainty — Mr. Meadows at Soo-Chow — Defensive Works 
Commenced — Trouble with the Men of Foo-Kien — Marauders in the Country — 
Burning of Thieves — The Foo-Kien Grave-yard — Desertion of the City — A Ru- 
mored Battle— Death of Tien-teh — Mr. Meadows — Various Rumors — Return of the 
Science — Destruction of Chin-kiang-foo — The Excitement Subsides, . . 805 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

Chinese and Foreigners at Shanghai— Situation of the City — A Chinese Promenade— 
Buryiiig-Grounds — Money for the Dead — A Baby Tower — The Ningpo House — 
Coffins — ("Linese Gypsies — A Street of the Suburbs — The City Gate — A Chinese 
Pawnbrokers Shop — A Temple — The Statue of Boodh — A Priest at his Devotions 
— Stenches of the Streets — Beggars — Shops — View of the Tea-Garden — Chinese 
Gamblers— An Artistic Mountebank— The Baptist Chapel— Scene from its Tower — 
The Hills — Faivciful Signs — Missionary Labors in China — Apathy of the People— A 
Chinese Residence — The Library — The City Prison— Torture of the Prisoners — A 
Bath House— Character of the Mongol Form — The Tutelar Deity of Shanghai — 
Boodh at Sunset— Kite Flying, 821 

CHAPTER XXVIL 

An Earthquake — Sensations it Produced— Its Effects — Additional Shocks — ^The Bowl- 
ing Alley — Hairs ia the Soil— A Shower of Sand — Visit of the Taou-tai to Col. 
Marshall — Chinese Visiting Cards — The Taou-tai's Appearance — Reception of the 
Dignitaries — A Chinese Military Review — The Soldiers and their Equipments — 
Their Discipline — Uncouth Weapons — Absurdity of the Parade — The Commissioner 
visits the Taou-tai— Reception — The Taou-tai's Residence — Chinese Refreshments — 
Departure, 339 

CHAPTER XXVI I L 

Spring at Shanghai— Appearance of the Country— Crops— National Conveyance of 
Cliina — Houses of the Lower Classes— Sail on the River — The Pagoda — Village 
Market — Sweetmeats and Children — Showers of Cash — Chinese Horticultural Exhi- 
bition — The Lan-iDhei—Chin^&e Love of Monstrosity — Moral Depravity of the Race 
— Landscape Gardening— A Soldier and his Drill -The Cangue — Visit of the IIerrrt.68 
to Nanking — The Rebels — Their Christianit}- — Condition of the City— Arrival of the 
U. S. Steam-Frigate M issl'ssip pi— Gommo([ox& Perry— Col. Marshall's Chinese 
Dinner— Mr. Robert Fortune, . . ; 849 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

Btate of Things at Shanghai— The Sloop-of-War Plymouth-^Preparatjons for Depart- 
ure — Entering the Naval Service — Its Regulations — Procuring a Uniform— The 
Master's-Mates — Establishing a Mess — Departure for Japan — A Gale — Shipwrecks — 
Standing out to Sea — Arrival at the Great Loo-Choo Island — A Missionary — Beauty 
of the Harbor of Napa — The Native Authorities — Going Ashore — Jumping over a 
Coral Reef- -Landing— The Town of Napa- Kiang— Spies — ^Dr. Bettelheim's Resi- 
dence, 860 



CONTENTS. XV 



CHAPTER XXX. 

Visit of the Regent— The Island of Loo-Choo — An Exploration of the Interior — Setting 
Out — Entry into the Capital — Reception — The Old Mandarin in for a Journey — His 
Resignation — Programme of the Exploring Trip — Espionage in Loo-Choo — En- 
deavors to Escape it — ^Taking Families by Surprise — The Landscapes of Loo-Choo — 
The Cung-qiuXs — Watches and Counter-Watches — Commodore Perry's Visit to 
Shui — Disembarkation — ^The Order of March — Curiosity of the Natives — March to 
the Capital — Reception at the Gate — A Deception Prevented — The Viceroy's Castle 
— The Inner Courts — ^The Commodore's Reception — A Tableau — Salutations and 
Ceremonies — Visit to the Regent's House — A State Banquet in Loo-Choo — Edibles 
and Beverages — Extent of the Dinner— Toasts — ^The Interpreter, Ichirasichir—De- 
parture — Riding a Loo-Choo Pony — Return to the Squadron, .... 870 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

Departure — The Benin, or Arzoblspo Isles — Death of a Chinese Opium Smoker — A 
Peruvian Bark— Approach to the Bonin Islands— Pilots— Entering Port Lloyd— Go- 
ing Ashore— A Settler's Hut— Society on the Island— Mode of Life— An Old Inhab- 
itant and his Mate — Productions of the Island — A Coaling Station for Steamers — 
Buckland Island— A Basaltic Cavern— English Claims to the Islands, . . 889 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

Exploring Parties Appointed— My Part— Setting Out— Climbing the Hills— The Soil 
and Productions— Land-Crabs— Crossing a Ridge— A Tropical Ravine— Signs o{ 
Habitation— A Marquesan and his Household— South- Sea Pilots— The Valley— The 
Forest Again — Trees— Shooting a Wild Boar- The Southern Coast— A Precipice- 
Dangerous Climbing — A Frightful Ravine — Descending the Precipices — South-Easi 
Bay — The Nom- Camp— Ascent of the Ravine — The Party beginning to Fag— Tha 
Valley Again— A Slippery Ascent— A Man Lost— Firing Signals — Return to th« 
Vessel, . . 394 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Return to Loo-Choo— Mails— Departure for Japan— The Island of Ohosima— Tbe 
Japanese Coast — The Headland of Idzu— Precautionary Measures— Cape Sagami— 
The Bay of Yedo — Approach to Uraga— A Hint— The Squadron Halts— Japanese 
Boats— A Talk at the Gangway— The Vice Governor of Uraga— His Reception — 
The Boats Repulsed — Japanese Boatmen — Watch-fires — Yezaimon, Governor of 
Uraga — Consultations — An Express to Yedo — The Emperor appoints a Commissioner 
—Permission to Land— Skilful Negotiations— Scenery of the Bay— The Fortifica- 
tions—The Peak of Fusi-Yamma— Canvas Defences— A Surveying Party— Sounding 
along Shore— Forts and Soldiers— Threatened Collision— A Second Survey— A Mi- 
rage — Warlike Appearances — Lieut Bent's Encounter with Forty-five Japanese 
Boats— Result of the Survey, 410 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

The Day of Landing— Preparations on Shore — The Bight of Gori-hama — Japanese 
Military Display — Arrival of the Governors — Their Official Dresses — Precautions 
on Board— The Procession of Boats — An Inspiring Scene — The Landing— Number* 



XVI CONTENTS. 



of the Esc(frt— The Japanese Troops — The Commodore's Landing— March to the 
House of Reception — Japanese Body-Guard — The Hall of Audience — ^Two Japanese 
Princes — Delivery of the President's Letter — An Official Conversation — Eeturn to 
the Squadron, 424 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

The Japanese Officers on Board— Their Manners — Their Dislike to the Chinese— Their 
Swords— Their Curiosity— Passing up the Bay— Beauty of the Scenery—" Perry's 
Bay " — Junks bound for Yedo — Another Visit— Further Surveys — The Natives- 
An Excursion towards Yedo — ^Extent and Capacity of the Upper Bay— Change of 
Anchorage — The Surveys Proceed— Interchange of Presents — A Dilemma — Final 
Satisfaction— Farewell of the Japanese Officials — Commodore Perry's Diplomacy- 
Departure from Japan — A Multitude of Boats — Oosima— The Islands off the Bay- 
Discoveries — Formation of the Group— We Sail for Ohosima— A Typhoon — Return 
to Loo-Choo — The Second Visit to Japan, 433 

CHAPTER XXXVL 

Negotiations with the New Regent— Capt. Hall's Account of Loo-Choo — ^Napoleon's 
Incredulity — Its Correctness — Verification of the Japanese Chronicle — ^The Three 
Castles — The Government of Loo-Choo — Provisions for the Squadron — Duplicity 
of the Officials — The Markets Deserted— The Spies — The Telegraph and Daguerre- 
otype in Loo-Choo— Demands of Commodore Perry- The Regent's Reply — The 
Commodore successful — A Scene in the Market-place — Chase and Capture of a Spy 
— The Coal Depot — Exhibition of Loo-Choo Industry — National Contrasts — Steam- 
ship Line across the Pacific, 445 

CHAPTER XXXVIL 

Return to Hong Kong — End of the Cruise — Experience of Naval Life — ^My Duties on 
Board — " General Quarters " — Our Crew — Decline of Naval Discipline — False Sys- 
tem of Promotion — Delays — What is Needed — Harmony of Government at Sea — 
The Abolition of Corporeal Punishment — Want of an Efficient Substitute — Govern- 
ment on Sea and Land— Mr. Kennedy's Proposal for Registered Seamen— Eftect of 
Long Cruises — Need of Small Vessels in Chinese Waters, .... 456 

CHAPTER XXXVIIL 

Impressions of Hong-Kong— A Man Drowned at Midnight — Hong-Kong from the 
Water — The town of Victoria — The Island of Hong-Kong— The Hong-Kong Fever — 
Hospitality of Foreign Residents in China — Their Princely Style of Living — Rigid 
Social Etiquette— Balls— Tropical Privileges— The Anglo-Saxon Abroad, . 466 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

Movements of the Squadron — Cumsingmoon— The Naval Hospital at Macao — Quiet 
Life — A Chinese Beggar — The Band — The Memories of Macao — Situation of the 
Town — Its Appearance — Desertion of the Place — Its Tropical Gardens — The Cam- 
po — The Temple of Wang Hya— Anecdote of Cnshin g— Society in Macao — Chinese 
All-Souls' Day— Discordant Noises — The Grotto of Camoens— The Casa Gardens — 
The Grotto at Daybreak— French Irreverence— Preparations to Return Home — 
Leaving the Naval Servici— Trips to Hong-Kong and Cumsingmoon, , . 474 



CONTENTS. XTU 



CHAPTEE XL. 

Increase of the Squadron — Disposition of the Vessels — ^Passage to Canton — First View 
of the City— The Foreign Factories— Old and New China Streets— Talking " Pi- 
geon English " — The Great Temple of Honan — Ceremonies of the Priests — Sacred 
Books and Pigs— The Lotas Blossom — Dwellings of the Priests — A Eetired Ab- 
bot-Opium Smoking in China— The Opium-Pipe — Flavor and Fascination of tha 
Drug— Its Effects— A Walk around Canton— The Walls— Entering the City— For- 
eign Devils— A Tea-House — Beyond the Suburbs— A Chinese Panorama— Th« 
Feast of Lanterns— Dr. Parker's Hospital— The Eve of Departure, . . 481 

CHAPTER XLL 

Farewell to China— Whampoa — A Musical Good-Bye — The Boguo Forts — ^The Las( 
Link— The China _Sea—I-ife on the Sea-Serpent — The Straits of Mindoro— Pictu- 
resque Islands — Calm Sailing — Moonlight in the Tropics — "Summer Isles of Eden* 
—The Sooloo Sea— The Cagayaues Islands— Straits of Basiian— Mindanao— A Na- 
tive Proa — The Sea of Celebes — Entering the Straits of Macassar— Crossing th« 
Equator— Off Celebes— Lazy Life— The Java Sea— Passing the Thousand Islands- 
Approach to the Straits of Sunda, 50J 

CHAPTER XLII. 

Entering the Straits of Sunda — Malay Boats — The Mangosteen — Bargaining with th« 
Natives — Scenery of the Straits — Angier — Passing the Straits— Death on Board— 
The Indian Ocean — A Submarine Earthquake — A Tropical Sunset — A Fatal Escape 
— The Trade Wind — Mozambique Channel— The Coast of Africa— Doubling the 
Cape— Southern Constellations— Distant View of Table Mountain— On the Atlantic 
— ^The Trades again — Restoration — A Slaver, 511 

CHAPTER XLIII. 

Proposed Call at St Helena — First View of the Island — Its Cliffs — Approach to James- 
town — View from the Anchorage — Landing — The Town and Ravine — Ascending 
the Gorge— Looking Down—" The Briars "—Summit of the Island— Pastoral Land- 
scape — Sea-View — Approach to Longwood — Reception — The Billiard-Room — Scene 
of Napoleon's Death— His Bedroom— Desecration of Longwood — The New Resi- 
dence — The Longwood Farm — The " Crown and Rose " — National Peculiarities— 
The Grave of Napoleon — The Old Woman's Welcome — Condition of the Grave — 
St. Helena Literature— The Old Woman's Admirable Story— Napoleon's Spring- 
Return to Jamestown— Departure from the Island, 520 

CHAPTER XLIV. 

Trade Weather— Phosphorescence of the Sea — Ocean Nymphs — Butterflies in Mid- 
Ocean — The Nonh-East Trades— A Gale off the Bermudas— Nautical Alms-Giving 
—The Gulf StreanQ— Escape from Cape Hatteras— Fair Wind— Winter Weather— 
The Last Day ol the Voyage— Landing in New, York— Retrospect, . . 584 



INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN 



GHAPTEE I. 

THE OVERLAND ROUTE TO INDIA. 

Leaving Gibraltar— Voyage up the MediteiTanean— Landing at Alexandria— Dlftribu« 
tion of Passengers— A Cloudy Day In Egypt— A Joyful Meeting— The Desert Vans— 
We Start for Suez— Cockney Fears- The Road and Station-houses— Suez— Transfer to 
the India Steamers— Our Passengers and Crew— The Mountains of Horeb— EedSea 
Weather and Scenery — A Glimpse of Mocha— The Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb — An Ex- 
tinct Kades— The Fortress of Aden— Arrival— The Somali— Ride to the Old Tovra — 
Population of Aden— Temperature— The Fortifications— The Track of the Anglo- 
Saxon — Departure— Disregard of Life — Araby the Blest — Life on the Achilles — Ap- 
proach to India— Land !— The Ghauts of Malabar— Arrival at Bombay. 

My passage to Bombay had been secured a month before; 
the ticket was in my pocket ; the horses I had ridden from 
Granada had gone back under charge of Jose, my merry 
guide and groom; and finally, on the 27th of November, 
1852, the mail steamer from Southampton to Alexandria, two 
days overdue, was signalled from the top of Gibraltar Rock. 
There was no tie to bind me to Europe : my travelling trunk 
was already packed, my bill paid, and the needful stock of 
Gibraltar cigars laid in. My face was turned eastward once 



14 



more, bul I looked beyond the Orient, to those elder lands of 
India and Cathay, where the sun of Egypt and of Greece 
first rose. Long before the outward-bound passengers had 
finished their rambles in the Alameda, I went out the water- 
gate of the town, and the sunset-gun found me impatiently 
pacing the deck of the Haddington. 

Our voyage up the Mediterranean was a dreary one, and 
without any incident worthy of being recorded. There were 
a hundred and seventy passengers on board, and the cabins 
fore and aft were stowed as closely as the steerage of an emi- 
grant ship. The raw, gusty weather we encountered, made 
our quarters doubly disagreeable, while, owing to the comforta- 
ble indifference of the officers, nothing was done to alleviate the 
annoyance. In fact, it required symptoms of incipient ship- 
fever, and the strong protest of a few resolute passengers, to 
procure for us the simple relief of a wind-sail in the cabin. 
The fare resembled that of the Pacific Mail Steamers, during 
the first year of their establishment ; and the price of passage 
was in about the same ratio. The Peninsular and Oriental 
Company, like all great monopolies, is a model of meanness. 

"We ran along, under the lee of the Spanish Mountains, to 
Cape de Gratte, then crossed to the Barbary Coast, which we 
skirted to Cape^Bon, catching now and then a rainy glimpse 
of the distant Atlas, touched at Malta, and after a voyage of 
eleven days — time enough to have crossed the Atlantic — took 
a pilot off Alexandria, at daybreak on the 8th of December. 
I looked upon the crowd of windmills on the Cape of Figs, 
the light-house on the island of Pharos, and Pompey's Pillar 
in the distance, with almost the feeling of one returning to 
his native land. A clear, balmy Egyptian morning welcomed 



DISTRIBUTION OF PASSENGERS. 15 

US after tlie gales of the Mediterranean, and the anchor had 
not been dropped five minutes before the passengers began to 
make for the shore. We left our baggage in a heap upon tho 
deck, with the assurance that we should find it again, on arriv- 
ing at Suez. The Egyptian Transit Company has published 
very strict regulations, limiting the length, breadth, and depth 
of trunks and portmanteaus to be conveyed across. I scrupu- 
lously arranged my baggage accerding to these rules, but 
found, on reaching Alexandria, that nobody else had done so, 
and that packages of treble the prescribed dimensions were 
accepted and forwarded without objection. Only two cwt. 
are allowed free, extra baggage to India being charged at the 
rate of £60 ($300) per ton. Several of my fellow-passengers 
paid from £10 to £20 for over-weight. 

The day before our arrival, a meeting of the passengers 
was held, in order to decide by lot their respective places in 
the omnibus vans from Cairo to Suez. As each van held six 
persons, and there were enough of us to fill twenty-eight vans, 
we formed ourselves into as many parties of six each, appoint- 
ing one of the number to draw. Those parties, for instance, 
who drew the numbers from one to ten, were sent off in the 
first steamer from Alexandria, and the first batch of vans 
from Cairo, and were obliged to wait in Suez for the more 
fortunate drawers of the last numbers, who thus gained a lit- 
tle time in the former cities. As my party had drawn one 
of the last vans, we had the whole day in Alexandria, which 
enabled us to get our letters and papers from home, refresh 
ourselves with a Turkish bath, and lay in a stock of choice 
Latakieh for the Indian part of the voyage. The hotels were 
filled to overflowing, more than a hundred passengers from 



16 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

India having been waiting six days for our arrival. We 
barely succeeded in finding seats at Bey's Hotel d'Europe. 
The arched entrance resembled a bazaar ; venders of tobacco 
whips, tarbooshes, pipes, shawls, &c., thronged on all sides 
and the clamor of the donkey-boys was something terrible to 
the uninitiated. I found a number of acquaintances among 
the motley multitude, most of whom not only remembered 
my face, but my name also, hailing me with : " Thanks be to 
God, Howadji T ! you are welcome back ! " 

At the appointed hour, we went on board the barge, in the 
Mahmoudieh Canal, and were towei off by a small steamer. 
In the sweet, mild air of the evening, we sat on deck, watch- 
ing the palm-trees by starlight, till it grew chilly and damp 
with the heavy night-dews. "We then went below, and spread 
ourselves out on some bare tables and benches, until 2 A. M., 
when we reached Atfeh. Here a better steamer was waiting 
for us. The transfer was soon made, and in another hour we 
were breasting the current of the glorious old Nilo — the 
river of rivers. The morning was cold and gray, and we had 
a dark, rainy, disagreeable day. I had never known such 
weather in Egypt. In fact, until an hour before sunset, when 
the clouds broke away, it was neither Egypt nor the Nile. 
The leaves of the palm-trees were all blown one way, the Fel- 
lahs lay in their huts for shelter, scarcely a boat was to be 
seen on the river, the camels and Bedouins vanished from the 
horizon of the Libyan Desert, and the dull, brown, opaque 
flood lost all of the mystery and solemnity of its character. 

It was after dark before we reached the Barrage, at the point 
of the Delta. Our Arab firemen heaved the wood into their 
furnaces, until the chimney was red-hot, and a great mass of 



A JOYFUL MEETING. 17 

scarlet flame, pouring out of the top, flapped and snapped in 
the wind like a Moslem banner. On we went, throwing aside 
the turbid waves, past the glimmering lights of Shoobra and 
the dim minarets of Boulak, till the ruddy glare of torches 
on the Transit Wharf announced the end of our voyage. 
Here, the passengers were obliged to give up their carpet- 
bags, as no baggage is allowed in the Desert vans. This mat- 
ter settled, we got into the omnibus, drove up the broad 
avenue of acacias, and into the great square of Cairo. 

I went with my friends to the Hotel d'Europe, and found 
my old landlord. Monsieur Nolte, as fat and obliging as ever. 
To my great joy, my faithful dragoman, and companion on 
the White Nile, Achmet, was in Cairo, and as I was obliged 
to leave early the next morning for Suez, I sent for him im- 
mediately. Nothing could exceed the surprise and joy of the 
honest Theban. We had abundance of news for each other, 
and old experiences to talk over, and did not separate until 
long after midnight. Some of my party, by rising early, rode 
up to the Citadel by sunrise ; but I contented myself with a 
donkey-ride through the Ezbekiyeh, accompanied by Achmet 
and the little shaytan of a donkey-boy who served me a year 
before. I would have given more than I am willing to confess, 
for the sake of staying a month in Egypt. Cairo, in the win- 
ter, is one of the most delightful cities in the world ; and the 
brief morning glance I had of it brought back with double 
force the charms of my past Oriental life. 

At 8 o'clock, I bade adieu to Monsieur Nolte, and 
Achmet and the donkey-boy, and took my place in the allot- 
ted van. These vehicles bear a strong resemblance to a 
baker's cart. They are about six feet by four in size, mount- 



18 • INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

• 

ed on a single pair of wheels, and entered by a door in the 
rear. Each van carries six persons, so you may conceive thai 
there is very little vacant space. The driver sits on a box in 
front, and an Arab assistant rides on the step behind. There 
are four horses to each, which are changed about every five 
miles. The distance to Suez — 84 miles — is divided into six- 
teen stages, and the usual length of the journey is sixteen 
hours. 

Our six vans, forming one " batch," as it is called, receive 
their respective parties, and we dash out of Cairo by the Suez 
gate. The morning is exquisitely mild, fair, and balmy, and 
the palm-groves of the Nile, on our left, never looked more 
beautiful. Outside of the gate there is an encampment of 
several hundred tents, which we take to be those of the pil- 
grims preparing for their journey to Mecca. Some of the 
party are absorbed in the Tombs of the Caliphs, and others 
in Abbas Pasha's white Italian palace, when, as we climb a 
long, sandy rise — the first step of the Desert — an eye that 
knows in what direction to look, sees the Pyramids looming 
large and blue, far away over the city. You can look at noth- 
ing else, when you have the Pyramids in your landscape, and 
so we watch them fade, and sink, and recede, till our horses 
draw up at the first station in the Desert. 

Yes, this is the Desert : but the young lady who goes out 
to be married in India would not have thought it. The Nile 
Valley is still in sight behind us ; but eyen looking toward 
the Red Sea, here is a broad macadamized road, filled with 
camels, and Arabs, and donkeys, to say nothing of our six 
rapid coaches ; two telegraph towers on the sandy hills ; and 
five miles before ua, the station where we shall again change 



COCKNEY FEARS THE DESERT. 19 

horses. It is a barren, desolate country, certainly ; but it ia 
not the Desert of one's dreams — not that silent, fiery world of 
tawny sand and ink-black porphyry mountains in the heart of 
Nubia, over which I had travelled a year before. 

I was amused at seeing many of our passengers, immedi- 
ately on reaching Alexandria, wind great white shawls around 
their hats, and hang green veils over their faces. "While 
crossing the Desert, although the temperature was not above 
70° at noon, they persisted in doing the same thing, and some 
of them even protected their eyes with spectacles, although 
there was no glare that would have made an infant wink. 
According to their ideas, they were in constant peril of hav- 
ing a sun-stroke, or catching the ophthalmia. My companions 
in the van were inured to an Indian sun, and so we threw 
aside all fears, and made merry from one side of the 
Desert to the other. At the fourth station we stopped an 
hour to breakfast. Here we found a spacious two-story house, 
with a large dining-saloon, divans, &c., and an excellent 
breakfast for thirty persons on the table. There were several 
neat bedrooms for the accommodation of persons who wish to 
make the journey more slowly. 

The country through which we passed was low and monoto- 
nous, and we saw no mountains until we approached the Red 
Sea. There are three trees on the road — one large and two 
small ones, but no wells. At the eighth, or half-way station, 
we had dinner, and were allowed two hours rest. The meals 
were all gotten up and served by natives, the Transit Ad- 
ministration being a perquisite of the Pasha of Egypt. Con- 
sidering that every thing has to be brought from Cairo, they 
were very good indeed. Opposite the Central Station, Abbas 



20 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

Pasha built a large palace on the summit of a hill, where 
he often went to spend a few days and breathe the healthy 
desert air. All the supplies, of course, have to be brought 
from the Nile — a distance of nearly fifty miles. I approve 
entirely of the Pasha's taste, and should like nothing better 
than the use of a suite of apartments in the palace for a few 
months. The long white front of the building, crowning a 
naked range of gray hills, has a striking effect when viewed 
from the Suez road. 

The sun set before we left the midway station. We drove 
on in the dark, without other incident than passing long 
strings of camels laden with our baggage, and the specie and 
mails for India. Now and then some of our teams would 
come to a halt in a streak of deep sand, and this would detain 
all the others, for the orders are very strict that the vans 
should keep together. There are no ascents or descents on 
the road worth notice. A railroad could be constructed with 
but moderate trouble and expense.* 

An hour after midnight we reached Suez, and were at 
once driven to the Government Hotel, a dreary quadrangular 
building on the sea-shore. The rooms were all filled, of 
course, but we obtained a cotton quilt and part of a hard 
divan in the billiard-room, at the rate of a dollar apiece. 
All the baggage arrived during the night. Even the specie- 
laden camels, which left Cairo at the same time as ourselves, 



* Recent mails from the East (May, 1855) amiounee that Said Pasha 
has determined to extend the Alexandria and Cairo Railroad, now nearly 
completed, to Suez. If the work is prosecuted with the same vigor as 
heretofore, the transit from Alexandria to the latter place, three years 
hence, will occupy but eight or ten hours. 



SUEZ. 21 

were at Suez early the next morning. The two steamers, the 
Hindostan and Achilles, lay at the anchorage, three miles off, 
but there was a smaller steamer in waiting to take us out. 
Our baggage, tickets, and other preliminaries, engaged all our 
time, and I saw nothing of Suez except the white quadrangle 
of the hotel, two ugly minarets, and a great quantity of mud 
huts. I suspect these are about as much as anybody sees. 
The American flag was flying from a lofty flag-staff, on ac- 
count of the presence of the Hon. Humphrey Marshall, U. S. 
Commissioner to China, who was on board the Hindostan. I 
took leave of a number of good friends, who were bound to 
Madras, Calcutta, and China, and went on board the Achilles. 
The day was excessively hot and sultry, and the Captain of 
our steamer received a sun-stroke while on shore, from the 
effects of which he was confined to his berth during the whole 
voyage. 

We weighed anchor about 10 o'clock the same evening, 
the Hindostan having left an hour before us. Our passen- 
gers were between seventy and eighty in number, and as the 
Achilles rated less than a thousand tons, we were crowded 
rather too much for comfort, though in all respects we fared 
better than we did on board the Haddington. The stewards 
were mostly Hindoos, the sailors the same, the cooks two Por- 
tuguese and a Chinaman, and the firemen hideous, monkey- 
faced negroes from Mozambique. Among the passengers were 
a Portuguese General, the Governor of Mozambique, a Turkish 
Bey, Ambassador to Yemen, and a Transylvanian, who for 
fifteen years was Court Physician to Runjeet Singh at 
Lahore, and was then bound for Cashmere and Thibet. 
Amid such a motley gathering of character and nationalities, 



22 

there was no lack of diversion. For myself, wlien I drank 
Bombay water, ate real curry, hailed the waiter as "khit- 
mudgar ! " and was addressed by him as " sahib ! " I felt that 
I was already in India. 

The morning showed us the shores of Egypt on the one 
hand, and the red mountains of the Sinaitic Peninsula on the 
other. The Gulf of Suez is so narrow that you have a dis- 
tinct view of both shores, alike hopelessly sterile, but en- 
chanting in outline and color. The thousand-fold shadows of 
those sandstone mountains, tinted with the fairest rose, pur- 
ple, and violet hues, are penciled with the delicacy of a min- 
iature painting. The loftier range of Horeb, which rises 
inland, presents a sharp, serrated outline. I tried to per- 
suade myself that I saw the peak of Sinai, but the ship's 
officers insisted that it was not visible from the Grulf of Suez. 
In addition to the absorbing interest of the scene, the shores 
had a grand continental significance. Here was Africa, there 
Asia. Like the Bosphorus which parts Europe and Asia, or 
the straits of Gibraltar, where Africa confronts Europe, this 
part of the Red Sea possesses a grandeur beyond that which 
Nature gives it. 

In the afternoon we passed Ras Mohammed, at the ex- 
tremity of the Peninsula where the Gulf of Akaba joins that 
of Suez. We then lost sight of the Arabian shore, while 
only the higher peaks of the mountains in the deserts of 
Egypt and Nubia were visible. On the 13th, we entered the 
tropics, and each day thenceforth showed a marked increase 
of temperature. By the noon observation on the following 
day, we were in Lat. 21° 30^, off the port of Djidda, and not 
more than a hundred miles, in a straight line, from Mecca — 



RED SEA WEATHER AND SCENERY. 23 

probably the nearest approacli I shall ever make to the Holy 
City. 

After passing St. John's Islands, off the ancient port of 
Berenice, we lost sight of both shores until the evening of the 
16th, when Djebel Tor, or Teir, a lofty volcanic island, ap- 
peared on the left. Early the next morning we made Djebel 
Sogheir, and ran along close to its shores. It is about a 
thousand feet in height, and resembles a huge mass of cin- 
ders. Some palms were growing on the northern slope, but 
there was no sign of habitation. We had a violent head- 
wind, or rather gale, similar to those which are frequently 
met with off the mouth of the Gulf of California. Yet, in 
spite of this strong current of air, the thermometer stood at 
85° on deck and 90° in the cabin. For two or three days we 
had a temperature of 90° to 95°. This part of the Red Sea is 
considered to be the hottest portion of the earth's surface. In the 
summer the air is like that of a furnace, and the bare red moun- 
tains glow like heaps of live coals. The steamers at that 
time almost invariably lose some of their stewards and fire- 
men. Cooking is quite given up, and the panting and swel- 
tering passengers drink claret and water and eat dry biscuits. 

In the afternoon we had a glimpse of the town of Mocha, 
about ten miles distant. It is built on low land, but a range 
of mountains rises in the background. With a telescope, I 
could plainly distiiiguish the white citadel, and a long line of 
low, fiat-roofed buildings, looming through the hot vapors of 
the coast. The famous Mocha coffee does not grow in the 
vicinity of the town, but is brought from the valleys of the 
interior. Hodeida, further up the coast, is another port for 
its exportation, but the foreign trade of both these places has 



24 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

been almost entirely destroyed by the rise of Aden. The cof- 
fee is taken down to the latter port in the native coasters, or 
by caravans from the interior, and there shipped for Europe and 
other parts of the world. Much of the so-called Mocha coffee, 
I am told, is actually grown in Abyssinia. 

We now approached the Straits of Bab-el- Mandeb, the 
" Gate of Tears," which we passed about midnight. The pas- 
sage for vessels is about three miles wide, and not at all dan- 
gerous in clear weather. The Arabian and Abyssinian shores 
are hilly, but not mountainous. Had not the weather been so 
hazy, we should have seen the lofty range of the Danakil, on 
the Abyssinian side. The latitude of the Straits is about 
12° 40'', about the same which I had attained the previous 
winter, on the White Nile. 

On the next morning we were in the Indian Ocean. The 
barren volcanic headlands of Arabia Felix rose on our left, 
point beyond point, till at last a larger and loftier mass was 
declared to be the Rock of Aden. The pale-green water 
through which we were sailing told of reefs and shoals, and 
the ship made a wide curve to the eastward before entering 
the bay. The main land of Arabia presents a level, sandy 
coast, with few indentations, and the Bay of Aden is formed 
by two narrow peninsulas which project from it at right angles 
their extremities shooting up suddenly into clusters of black, 
ragged volcanic cones, about 1,500 feet in height. No de- 
scription can give any idea of the savage sterility of these 
mountains. They are masses of cinders and scoriae, glowing 
as if with still unextinguished fires, and the air around them 
^luivers with the heat radiated from their sides. Their forms 
3xhibit all the violence of the convulsion which created them , 



THE FORTRESS OF ADEN. 25 

heaps of burned fragments, cliffs divided by deep fissures, and 
sharp, inaccessible cones, shooting upward like congealed 
flames from the rubbish of extinct craters. Some profane 
tourist speaks of Aden as resembling " Hell with the fires 
put out " — a forcible simile, but very much to the point. 

The town and fortress of Aden occupy the eastern pe- 
ninsula, which was obtained from the Sultan of Lahadj, in the 
year 1839, partly by force and partly by treaty. The sum of 
$250,000 was paid to the Sultan by the East India Company, 
and the chieftain prudently sold what was already more than 
half -wrested from him. Nevertheless, his son and successor 
did his best to have the bargain annulled, offering to refund 
the money. This was of course rejected, and the place was 
for a number of years exposed .to assaults from the Arabs of 
Lahadj, who were violently opposed to the sale, and to the 
establishment of a foreign colony on the coast. In spite of all 
precautions, robbery and murder were constantly perpetrated 
in the town and camp, until the fortifications on the land-side 
were completed. At present, there is tolerable security inside 
of the walls, but no one ventures many miles into the interior, 
unless attended by a strong armed escort. The harbor of 
Aden was known to the Romans, and its importance as a 
point of communication with the Indies seems to have been 
understood by the Turks, as there are still the remains of for- 
tifications, which were constructed in the time of Solyman 
the Magnificent. The rock is about six miles in length, by 
from two to three in breadth, and its highest point is said to 
be 1,800 feet above the sea. 

We ran in, along the western base, until on turning a small 
keadland, we came upon a sheltered roadstead, in which half a 
2 



26 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

dozen Englisli colliers and a number of small Arab craft lay 
at ancbor. Here our own ancbor dropped, and tbe sbip was 
presently surrounded by boats rowed by balf-naked blacks, 
some of wbom made tbemselves entirely so, and commenced 
diving and splasbing in tbe water, in tbe bope of getting 
sbillings tbrown over for tbem to fisb up. A few long, one- 
story wbite bouses and some beaps of Newcastle coal were 
scattered over a level piece of sand, at tbe bead of a cove, and 
on a sligbt eminence towards tbe sea tbere was a group 
of cane buts, built in tbe Robinson Crusoe style. On tbis 
eminence tbere is a sunken battery, barely visible from tbe 
water, but said to be strong enougb to sink any bostile vessel 
wbicb may attempt to enter tbe barbor. A few days before 
our arrival, a Frencb corvette, -wbicb bad been cruising in tbe 
Indian Ocean, came into Aden witb ber guns ready sbotted 
and manned, in full expectation of being fired upon, ber com- 
mander supposing tbat Louis Napoleon bad commenced tbe 
invasion of England. I went asbore in a small boat, rowed 
by four Somali, or natives of tbe African coast, near Cape 
Guardafui. Tbey appear to be a low variety of tbe Arab race, 
baving dark brown skins, deep-set eyes, long, straigbt noses, 
and bandsome, curling bair. Tbey are less partial to mutton- 
fat tban tbe tribes on tbe Red Sea, but tbeir long locks, wbicb 
are naturally of a glossy blue-black bue, are dyed brown, or 
dark red, wbicb imparts a goat-like, satyric air to tbeir lank, 
nimble figures. Tbeir language is a very bad Arabic, wbicb 
I could witb difficulty understand. No sooner bad we landed 
tban we were surrounded witb tbe owners of donkeys and 
horses, anxious to bire tbem to as for a ride to Aden. The 



RIDE TO THE OLD TOWN. 27 

old town lies on the other side of the Peninsula, and is not 
visible from the landing-place. 

I took a horse and rode off at once, followed hy the at- 
tendant native. The road, which is alternately of sand and 
macadamized volcanic cinders, follows the curve of the bay 
towards the northern end of the rock, where there is a strong 
gate, affording the only land communication with the sandy 
Arabian plains beyond. The natives are here obliged to give 
up their arms, owing to which precaution there are now but few 
crimes committed, in comparison with former years. As I 
rode along, between the black, scorched hills, and over the 
blistering sand, amid the almost insupportable glare of white 
noonday heat, my eyes turned to seek the dazzling blue and 
violet-green tints of the bay with an exquisite sense of relief. 
After two or three miles of this travel, the road turned inland, 
ascending the less abrupt slopes of the hills. I came at length 
to an artificial pass, about forty feet deep, by twenty wide, cut 
through the comb of the central ridge. It was closed by a 
ponderous double gateway, and the wall of circumvallation 
crossed by an arch. An Indian sepoy stood guard at the gate 
as I passed through. The road was filled with Arabs from the 
interior, bringing camel-loads of their produce to market, and 
with the mongrel, natives of the African coast. Among the 
latter I readily distinguished the natives of Adel, the country 
lying south of Abyssinia. Major Harris, in his " Highlands 
of Ethiopia," calls them the "mild-eyed Adael," and truly 
the expression of their features is feminine in its mildness and 
gentleness. They, as well as the natives of Aden, speak Arabic 
substituting only the Hindoostanee word " sahib " (master,) 
for the " Howadji " of Egypt. 



28 ' IXDIA, CHTSA. A^-D JAFA2f. 

Beyond the pass, the town of Aden came into riew. It 
lies in a circular sandj basin, almost enclosed by black moxin- 
tains of volc-anic cinder. The buildings, which are gpacious 
huts of wood, cane or mud, one story in height, are scattered 
orer an extent of three quarters of a mile. The dry bed of 
a torrent which divides the town, proves that it sometimes rains 
at Aden, although I was informed that a heavy fall of rain 
does not occur more than once or twice a year. A new mosque, 
a small Christian Church, and a tall tower (built, I believe, for 
an observatory), were the only objects which distinguished them- 
selves amid the mass of huts. There were two or three feeble 
attempts at cultivating small square yards of ground, and 
these pigmy specks of green gave life and cheerfulness to a 
scene which would otherwise have been depressing from ita 
utter desolation. The only water on the peninsula is braeki^ 
Asd disagreeable, and is rarely used in an unmixed state. The 
Arabs bring a better kind from the opposite headland, for 
which they are paid at the rate of $1.50 per 100 gallona. 
The only things the place affords are fish and oysters; all 
other supplies must be imported. There are a number of 
Ehops in the town, kept by Hindoo merchants, and there for 
the first time I saw the Parsee, or Fire- Worshipper, wearing 
the high chintz mitre which is peculiar to his sect. 

I made the tour of the airy bamboo huts on the beadi, 
where the TSth Eegiment was quartered. The soldiers were 
loimging lazily in the shade, for since the wall of defence has 
been finished, their duties are very light. Some of tbe 
officers had brought their families with them, so that there waa a 
small English community. The temperature of Aden ranges 
generally from SO^ to 90^, with a maximum of 98^, and a 



THE FORTIFICATIONS. 29 

mmimTun of 75^, being more equable than almost any other 
climate in the world. As there is no miasma from vegetable 
matter, it is considered healthy. An officer who had been 
stationed there more than four years, informed me that out of 
ninety men whom he brought with him, he had only lost two. 

I rode through the bazaar in the native part of the town. 
The principal commodities were coarse cotton stuffs, dates, 
sugar, spices, and bad tobacco. I dismounted at a small coffee 
shop, but both the coffee and the narghileh were so intolerably 
bad that I gave them to the nearest native. A large crowd of 
Arabs collected around me, and the most intelligent of them 
asked me the news from Damascus and StambouL They said 
there had recently been war in Yemen, and that Shekh Hose 
sayn was then at the head of the tribes. Leaving the town, 
I returned to the western side of the peninsula and visited 
the Turkish "Wall, which is the main defence of the place, on 
the land side. The Rock of Aden resembles that of G-ib- 
raltar in being attached to the main land by a narrow strip 
of sand, but instead of presenting an unbroken line of pre- 
cipice, as at the latter place, the hills form a crescent, with 
the concave side toward the north. The points of this 
crescent are connected by a powerful wall^ further protected 
by a deep moat and sloping glacis, and the heights at each end 
are crowned with batteries- Immense sums have been ex- 
pended on these fortifications, which, though far from being 
completed, now afford perfect security against foes by land. 

The value of Aden as a naval station has been much ex- 
aggerated. It has been called the " Gibraltar of the East," 
perhaps with reason, sinc^, like Gibraltar, it can be of no use 
without a fleet At present, it could scarcely be called im- 



30 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

pregnable, but were it so, might readily be starved into capit- 
ulation, as Gibraltar might be, if England should lose her 
naval supremacy. Nevertheless, as a necessary station on 
the Overland Route, its possession is of the utmost impor- 
tance to England, and it belongs to her geographically, as 
the Fillibusters say. The fortifications are most admirably 
planned. The skill and genius exhibited in their design im- 
pressed me far more than the massive strength of Gibraltar. 
I never felt more forcibly the power of that civilization which 
follows the Anglo-Saxon race in all its conquests, and takes root 
in whatever corner of the earth that race sets its foot. Here, 
on the farthest Arabian shore, facing the most savage and 
inhospitable regions of Africa, were Law, Order, Security, 
Freedom of Conscience and of Speech, and all the material 
advantages which are inseparable from these. Herein con- 
sists the true power and grandeur of the race, and the assu- 
rance of its final supremacy. 

The population of Aden, which was little more than 1,000 
at the time it was acquired by England, now amounts to up- 
wards of 20,000. It has almost ruined Mocha and the other 
Arabian ports on the Red Sea, having usurped the greater 
part of their commerce. It is a free port, and the native 
merchants are but too willing to transfer their trade to it, 
thereby escaping the burdensome and indiscriminate duties 
exacted by the Turkish Government. The resident merchants 
in Mocha, Hodeida and Djidda have petitioned the East India 
Company to establish Customs at Aden, but without efi"ect. 

The Achilles took on board three hundred tons of coal, 
and at half-past nine in the evening fired her signal gun for 
the passengers to come ofi". One young lady, however, re- 



THE INDIAN OCEAN. 31 

mained nearly two hours longer, the steamer waiting solely on 
her account. Less consideration was shown to a luckless 
native, who had fallen asleep in one of the boats and was not 
observed until we were under way. He was immediately 
thrown overboard in spite of his entreaties, and left to take his 
chance of reaching the shore, which was half a mile distant. 
There was a collier lying about a hundred yards off, but he 
would not be able to get on board of her so late at night, and 
the forcing of him into the sea, under the circumstances, 
showed a most criminal disregard of human life. 

On the following day, some mountains about a hundred 
miles east of Aden were in sight ; they were our last view of 
Araby the Blest. We were from fifteen to twenty miles dis- 
tant from the shore, and the loveliest tints of violet, lilac and 
rose-color concealed its sterility. After leaving the Red Sea» 
the temperature became a few degrees cooler, the thermometer 
showing 80° at night, and 85° to 87° at noon. The Indian 
Ocean was calm and peaceful, the violence of the north-east 
monsoon being over, so that, although it blew in our faces, it 
only served to freshen our nights and noons. We took our 
meals under an awning on deck, and some of the passengers 
preferred sleeping there. Where this open-air life is possible 
at sea, a long voyage is endurable — otherwise, rather a thou- 
sand miles on land, than a hundred on the waters. 

Our fare was so much better than that on board the Had- 
dington, that we did not complain much. The coffee and tea, 
however, gave evidence of astonishing skill, for I never im- 
agined it possible that these beverages could be so badly made. 
The passengers were often quite unable to distinguish one 
from the other. On the other hand we had capital bread, the 



32 . INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

baker being a Chinaman, who kept secret Lis manner of pre- 
paring it. The curry was genuine, and would have compen- 
sated for many deficiencies in other respects. On Christmas 
Day we had a handsome banquet on deck, and turkey was 
liberally dispensed to all on board. The evening was spent in 
festivities, the passengers dancing polkas on the quarter-deck, 
the wild Africans yelling and clapping hands amid-ships, and 
the sailors performing hornpipes on the forecastle. 

The distance from Aden to Bombay is 1,664 miles, and 
after having been at sea nine days, with a prospect of getting 
out of coal, we grew at last somewhat impatient. Finally, 
on the morning of the 27th of December — ^precisely a month 
after I embarked at Gibraltar — the cessation of the monsoon, 
the sultriness of the air, the appearance of the clouds, and the 
arrival of a dove on board, denoted the proximity of land. I 
have rarely approached any country with a keener interest. 
Scarce Vasco de Gama himself, after weathering the Cape 
of Storms, could have watched for the shores of India with 
more excited anticipation. That vision of gorgeous Ind, the 
Empress far away in the empurpled East, throned on the best 
grandeurs of History and canopied by sublime tradition, was 
about to be confirnied, or displaced for ever. Near at hand, 
close behind the blue sea-horizon, lay that which would either 
heighten the fascination of her name, or make it thenceforth 
but an empty sound to the ear of Fancy. 

Therefore, in spite of the breathless heat, I keep watch 
from one of the paddle-boxes. At noon there is a cry of 
" Land ! " from the foremast, and in a short time the tops of 
mountains are faintly discernible on the horizon. These are 
the Western Ghauts, which extend along the Malabar Coast, 



APPROACH TO BOMBAY. 33 

from Cape Comorin to Surat. The island of Salsette, norti 
of Bombay, next rises, and ere long we distinguish the light* 
house, at the entrance of the harbor. A considerable extent 
of coast, north and south, is visible — the mountains picturesque 
and beautiful in their forms, and exhibiting, in their drapery 
of forests, a marked contrast to the desert hills of Arabia, 
which we have last seen. We are now near enough to distin- 
guish the city, the dwellings of the residents on Malabar Hill, 
and the groves of cocoa-nut and date trees which cover the 
island. The sea swarms with fishing-boats, and our native 
pilot is already on board. We are signalled from the light- 
house, and being five days behind our time, are no doubt anx- 
iously looked for. 

The Bay opens magnificently as we advance. It lies be- 
tween the islands of Bombay and Salsette and the mainland, 
and must be fifteen or twenty miles in length. Both shores 
are mountainous and thickly covered with the palmy growths 
of the tropics. All is confusion on board, and I also must 
prepare to set foot on the land of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. 

2* 



CHAPTER II. 

IMPRESSIONS OF BOMBAY. 

A Foretaste of India— Entering Bombay Harbor— I Eeach the Shore— My First Eido 
in a Palanquin — Mr. Pallanjee's Hotel — Appearance of Bombay — Its Situation — The 
First Indian Kailroad — English Hospitality — American Consuls and Eesidents — The 
Parsees — Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy — His Family and Eesidence — Parsee Faith and 
Ceremonies— Bridal Processions— A Drive to Malabar Hill — Tropical Gardens — Tax 
on Palm-Trees— A Hindoo Temple— The Jeejeebhoy Hospital— Dr. Bhawoo Dajee. 

Before reacliing Bombay, I had a slight foreshadowing of 
Indian life. The servants on the steamer being all Indians, 
and the passengers mostly belonging to the East India service, 
many peculiarities of every- day life were already familiar to 
me. I had mastered the mysteries of curry; I learned to 
say "tiffin" instead of "lunch;" I became accustomed to 
being addressed as " sahib," and even ventured so far into 
Hindustani, as to call out boldly at table : "^ani c?o / " (give 
me water) or : " saf hasan lao ! " (bring a clean plate). Thus 
the first bloom of the new land was lost to me — all those 
nameless slight peculiarities which surround you with an en- 
chanted circle when you first plunge yourself into another 
climate and another race. Nevertheless, there was enough 



GOING ASHORE. 35 

left to make my landing on Indian soil a circumstance of no 
ordinary character. 

We came slowly np the splendid hay, until within half a 
mile of the town. The shores being low, nothing hut an array 
of brown tiled roofs, and a small Gothic spire, was visible 
behind the crowd of vessels at anchor. On the other hand, 
however, the islands of Eiephanta and Panwell, and the ranges 
of the Mahratta Ghauts, were gorgeously lighted up by the 
evening sun. But little time was allowed for admiring them ; 
the anchor dropped, and a fleet of boats, conveying anxious 
friends and relatives, gathered about us. The deck was 
covered with pyramids of baggage, all was noise and confusion, 
here shouts of joy and there weeping, here meeting and there 
parting, many scenes of the drama of life enacted at the same 
moment. Finding myself left wholly to my own resources, I 
set about extricating myself from the bewilderment, and ac- 
cepting the first native who addressed me, I embarked for the 
shore before the other passengers had thought of leaving. 
" Rupees," said the master of the boat, holding up three of 
his fingers. " JS'^," (one) I answered. Up went two fingers. 
'' ^A," again ; and so I went ashore for one. We came to a 
stone pier, with a long flight of steps leading down to the 
water. The top of it was thronged with natives in white 
dresses and red turbans. Among them were the runners of 
the hotels, and I soon found the one I wanted. At a small 
customs office on the pier, my baggage was passed unexamined, 
on my declaring that I had but two pounds of Turkish to- 
bacco. A line of cabs, buggies and palanquins with their 
bearers was drawn up on the pier, and in order to he as Indian 
as possible, I took one of the latter. 



36 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

» 

It w^s not a pleasant sensation to lie at full length in a 
tushioned box, and impose one's whole weight (and I am by 
no means a feather) upon the shoulders of four men. It is a 
conveyance invented by Despotism, when men's necks were 
footstools, and men's heads playthings. I have never yet 
been able to get into it without a feeling of reluctance, as if I 
were inflicting an injury on my bearers. Why should they 
groan and stagger under my weight, when I have legs of my 
own? — and yet, I warrant you, nothing would please them 
less than for me to use those legs. They wear pads on the 
shoulders, on which rests the pole to which the palanquin is 
suspended, and go forward at a slow, sliding trot, scarcely 
bending their knees or lifting their feet from the ground. 
The motion is agreeable, yet as you are obliged to lie on your 
back, you have a very imperfect view of the objects you pass. 
You can travel from one end of India to another in this style, 
but it is an expensive and unsatisfactory conveyance, and I 
made as little use of it as possible, in my subsequent journeys. 

As I was borne along, I saw, through the corners of my 
eyes, that we passed over a moat and through a heavy stone 
gateway. I then saw the bottoms of a row of fluted Grecian 
pillars — a church, as I afterwards found— then shops, very 
much in the European style, except that turbaned Hindoos 
and mitred Parsees stood in the doors, and finally my bearers 
came to a halt in a wooden verandah, where I was received by 
Mr. Pallanjee, the host of the British Hotel. I was ushered 
up lofty flights of wooden steps to the third story, and in- 
stalled in a small room, overlookiug a wide prospect of tiled 
roofs, graced here and there with a cocoa-nut or brab palm. 
The partitions to the rooms did not reach the ceiling ; there 



APPEARANCE 01 BOMBAY. S7 

were no glass windows, but merely blinds, and every breeze 
that came, swept through the whole house. The servants were 
mostly Portuguese, from Goa, but as India is especially the 
country of servant and master, every person is expected tO'^ 
have one for his own use. I chose a tall Hindoo, with one red 
streak and two white ones (the signs of caste) on his forehead, 
who, for half a rupee daily, performed the duties of guide, 
interpreter, messenger and valet de chambre. Nothing can 
exceed the respect shown to Europeans by the native ser- 
vants. They go far beyond the Arab and Turkish domestics 
of the East, or even the slaves in Egypt. No Eussian serf 
could have a greater reverence for his lord. As a natural 
consequence of this, they are noted for their fidelity; the 
ayahs, or nurses, are said to be the best in the world. 

Bombay, as a city, presents few points of interest to a 
traveller. It is wholly of modern growth, and more than 
half European in its appearance. It is divided into two parts 
— the Fort, as it is called, being enclosed within the old Por- 
tuguese fortifications and surrounded by a moat. It is about 
a mile in length, extending along the shore of the bay. 
Outside of the moat is a broad esplanade, beyond which, on 
the northern side, a new city has grown up. The fortifica- 
tions are useless as a means of defence, the water of the moat 
breeds mosquitos and fevers, and I do not understand why 
the walls should not have been levelled, long since. The city 
within the Fort is crowded to excess. Many of the streets 
are narrow, dark and dirty, and as the houses are frequently of 
wood, the place is exposed to dacgcr from fire. The popula- 
tion and trade of Bombay have increased so much within the 
last few years, that this keeping up of old defences is a great 



38 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

inconvenience. So far are the old practices preserved, that at 
one particular gate, where there was a powder magazine twenty 
years ago, no person is permitted to smoke. Southward of 
the Fort is a tongue of land — formerly the island of Colaba, 
but now connected by a causeway — on which stands the light- 
house. To the north-west, beyond the city, rises Malabar 
Hill, a long, low height, looking upon the open ocean, and 
completely covered with the gardens and country-houses of 
the native and European merchants. 

The mainland is distant from Bombay about fifteen miles, 
across the bay. Steamers run daily to Panwell, whence there 
is a mail-coach to Poonah, the old Mahratta capital, about 
seventy miles distant. Northward of the Island of Bombay, 
lies the large Island of Salsette, which is connected with it by 
two causeways, and Salsette has lately been united to the 
mainland by a bridge, the strait, at the northern point of the 
island, being less than half a mile wide. This bridge was 
built by the Railroad Company, who have already finished 
thirty-five miles of the great road which is to connect Bom- 
bay and Calcutta. The rails were laid as far as Tanna at the 
time of my visit, and the trains commenced running shortly 
afterwards. The engineers were occupied in locating that 
part of the line which crosses the Ghauts, and which is the most 
difficult and expensive portion of the road. The East India 
Company guarantees 5 per cent, annually on the stock, for the 
period of twenty years, owing to which encouragement, (with- 
out which, indeed, the undertaking were impossible,) shares 
were at a premium. 

During my brief stay in Bombay, I made some acquaint- 
ances among the English residents, to whom I was indebted 



AMERICAN CONSULS AND RESIDENTS. 39 

for much coi dial hospitality. The English in India are said 
to be the most hospitable people in the world, even to those 
who bring no letters of introduction. The kindness of my 
friends, and especially of Capt. R. Baird Smith, of the 
Bengal Engineers, supplied me with letters for all the principal 
towns in the interior, so that I had double assurance of a 
friendly reception. There were no American merchants in 
Bombay at the time, nor even a Consul. Appointments had 
been made, and Consuls had gone out, but none of them 
found the profits of the ofiice equal to its expenses. The last 
one had appointed Mr. Dossabhoy Merwanjee, one of the 
principal Parsee merchants, his agent, but the latter had no 
authority to act in a Consular capacity. The house of Dos- 
sabhoy Merwanjee & Co., however, is actively engaged in 
American trade, most of the vessels which come out from our 
ports being consigned to it. I was indebted to the members of 
the firm for much kindness. The only American residents were 
some missionaries, who have established a school and church, 
and a Boston ice merchant, who was a man of some impor- 
tance in such a climate. The ice was preserved in a large 
stone rotunda, and sold at the rate of four annas (12 cents) 
the pound. The consumption is increasing, much use of it 
being now made by the physicians, and with the best effect. 

My good fortune in making the acquaintance of Dossabhoy 
Merwanjee, and other members of the celebrated Lowjee 
Family, to which he belongs, gave me some insight into native 
society here — an imperfect experience, it is true, but enough 
to satisfy me that in few of the English works on India 
which I have read, has justice been done to the character of 
the native population. The Parsees, especially, form a com- 



40 

» 

munity distinguished for its intelligence, enterprise and public 
spirit. It would be no exaggeration to say that more than 
half the wealth of Bombay is in the hands of this class. Sir 
Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, the Parsee knight, presents one of the 
most striking examples of commercial success to be found in 
the history of any country. This gentleman, whose splendid 
benevolence has imperishably connected his name with his 
native city, was the architect of his own fortune. By pru- 
dence, economy and intelligence he rose from one success to 
another, till at present his fortune is estimated at three crores 
of rupees ($15,000,000.) He has given away in charities of 
various kinds upwards of $2,000,000, and scarcely a day 
passes without recording some further evidence of his gene- 
rosity. Among other works which owe their existence to 
him — and for which he was knighted by the Queen, being the 
first native who ever received that distinction — are the 
Hospital which bears his name, the Causeway from Bombay 
Island to Salsette (called Lady Jamsetjee's Causeway), and 
the Aqueduct for supplying the city of Poonah with water. 
I had a glimpse of him one evening, as his carriage passed me 
in the street : he was then verging upon his eightieth year, 
and very infirm. His eldest son, Cursetjee, inherits his en- 
terprise and boldness, and possesses a large fortune of his own 
making. Another of his sons has distinguished himself as 
a Persian scholar, and has published a work on the Era of 
Zoroaster. 

Dr. Bhawoo Dajee, a distinguished Hindoo physician 
kindly accompanied me to Sir Jamsetjee's town residence, a 
large and elegant mansion within the fort. The old gentle- 
man was absent, but we were received by his son Sora,bjee 



FAITH AND CUSTOMS OF THE PAR8EES. 41 

who inquired after Mr. Charles Norton, of Cambridge, and 
showed me a North American Review, containing Mr. N.'a' 
biography of Sir Jamsetjee. The residence is very elegantly 
furnished, in a style combining European comfort with Oriental 
display. Portraits of the different members of the family occu- 
pied the walls, and in the centre of the principal saloon stood a 
splendid testimonial, in wrought silver, three feet high, pre- 
sented to Sir Jamsetjee by three of the Bombay merchants. 

The Parsees settled on the Malabar Coast about eight 
centuries ago, after their expulsion from Persia. They are, 
as is well known, followers of Zoroaster, recognizing one 
Good and one Evil Principle, who contend for the mastery of 
the Universe. They worship the sun, as the representativo 
of God, fire in all its forms, and the sea. Their temples con- 
tain no images, but only the sacred fire, and though they have 
fixed days for the performance of various rites, they repeat 
their prayers every morning, soon after sunrise. The dead 
are neither buried nor burned, but exposed to the air within 
a walled enclosure, on the summit of a hill. The bodies of 
the rich are protected by a wire screen, until wasted away, but 
those of the poor are soon devoured by birds of prey. The 
children are generally married at from two to five years of 
age, and brought up together, until of a proper age to assume 
the duties of married life. Most of the marriages are cele- 
brated in the winter season, and the streets continually re- 
sounded with the music of the bridal processions. First came 
a string of palanquins and carriages, filled with children of 
both sexes — and very beautiful are the Parsee children — clad 
in silk bespangled with gold, and with pearl and emerald 
ornaments in their ears. Then a band of native musicians, 



42 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

generally playing " Lucy Long," or " Carry me back," &c. , 
after them the bridal dowry, covered with massive extinguish- 
ers of silver, and the procession was always closed by a con- 
course of women, whose loose floating mantles of scarlet, 
crimson, orange, yellow and purple silk, gleamed in the sun, 

*' Like tulip beds, of different shape and dyes, 
Bending beneath the invisible west-wind's sighs." 

My friend Cursetjee Merwanjee, accompanied me one 
afternoon in a drive around the environs of Bombay. After 
passing the esplanade, which is thickly dotted with the tents 
of the military and the bamboo cottages of the officers, we 
entered the outer town, inhabited entirely by the natives. 
The houses are two or three stories in height, with open wood- 
en verandahs in front, many of which have a dark, mellow old 
look, from the curiously carved posts and railings of black 
wood which adorn them. Mixed with the houses are groups 
of the beautiful cocoa-palm, which rise above the roofs and 
hang their feathery crowns over the crowded highway. Out- 
side of the town hall is shade and the splendor of tropical 
bloom. The roads are admirable, and we rolled smoothly 
along in the cool twilight of embowered cocoa, brab and date 
palms, between whose pillared trunks the afternoon sun poured 
streams of broad golden light. The crimson sagittaria 
flaunted its flame-like leaves on the terraces; a variety of 
the acacia hung thick with milky, pendulous blossoms, and 
every gateway disclosed an avenue of urns leading up to the 
verandah of some suburban palace, all overladen with gor- 
geous southern flowers. We rode thus for miles around and 
over Malabar Hill, and along the shores of the Indian Ocean, 



TAX ON PALM-TREES. 43 

until the hills of Salsette, empurpled hy the sunset, shone in 
the distance like the mountains of fairy land. 

I had thought the Government of Egypt despotic, for 
taxing the poor Nubias a piastre and a-half (7^ cents) an- 
nually for each of their date- trees, but the East India Com- 
pany exacts from one to three rupees (50 cents to $1.50) on 
eacn tree according to its quality. As the principal produce 
of the trees is tarij a kind of palm wine, used only by the 
natives, such a tax appeared enormous, and gave color to what 
I had already heard, that the resources of the country are 
mercilessly drained by the Company, for the purpose of car- 
rying out its expensive system of annexation, and at the same 
time paying the regular yearly dividend to the stockholders. 
However, I had determined, on entering India, to clear my 
mind of all preconceived opinions, and to judge of the effects 
of British rule as impartially as possible. I shall therefore 
draw no conclusion at present from this single instance of 
oppression. 

In the course of our excursion we visited a Hindoo Tem- 
ple on the western shore of the island. It is dedicated to the 
five principal divinities, each of whom has his separate shrine. 
We were not permitted to go further than the doors, but the 
attendants removed the hangings and showed us the figures of 
the gods. Their names were in the Mahratta language, and I 
do not remember the Sanscrit appellation of any except Maha- 
deo. The temple occupied the summit of a small hill, and 
was approached by ghauts, or flights of steps, of hewn stone. 
Near it there was a much older shrine, with an image in a 
dark recess. A tiger, rudely sculptured, sat in the outer 
porch, facing it. Several bells hung from the roof, and each 



44 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

of the natives who accompanied us rang one of these, both on 
passing in, and out. 

Dr. Bhawoo Dajee took me to visit the Jamsctjee Jee- 
jeebhoy Hospital, the name of which declares its founder. It 
is a one-story stone building, in the Gothic style, and divided 
into a number of wards, where the destitute Christian, Jewish, 
Hindoo, Parsee, or Mahometan invalid is taken in and well 
cared for. There were about three hundred patients at the 
time of my visit. The hospital is very clean, kept in excel- 
lent order, and the patients appeared to be enjoying as much 
comfort as was possible, in their condition. Opposite the 
hospital is the Grrant Medical College, an excellent institution, 
which was then attended by about thirty native students. 
Bhawoo Dajee himself is a graduate of this College, where 
he received the gold medal, and was besides awarded a prize 
of six hundred rupees for an essay on Infanticide. As a phy- 
sician and surgeon he is among the first of his class in Bom- 
bay, and in that refinement and liberality which distinguishes 
the gentleman and the scholar, he would be a noted man any 
where. I esteem it a particular good fortune which brought 
me to his ac(][uaintance. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE C A V E-T EMPLES OF ELEPHANTA. 

Hindoo and Egyptian Antiquities— The Hindoo Faith— Tlie Trinity— A Trip to Ele- 
phanta— Scenery of the Bay— Landing on the Island— Front View of the Cavo- 
Temple— Portuguese Vandalism- The Colossal Trinity— The Head of Brahma — 
Vishnu— Shiva— Kemarkable Individuality of the Heads— The Guardians of the 
Shrine — ^The Columns of Elephanta — Their Type in Nature — Intrinsic Dignity of all 

Eeligions — Eespect for the Ancient Faiths— The Smaller Chambers of the Temple 

The Shrine of the Sterile— Tamarind Trees— Smaller Cave-Temples — Eeturn to 
Bombay Island — Sunset in the Botanic Garden. 

While in Bombay, I took a step further back into the past, 
than ever in all my previous experience. In Egypt, you are 
brought face to face with periods so remote, that they lie more 
than half within the realm of Fable ; yet there the groping 
antiquarian has pierced the mystery, and leads you down from 
dynasty to dynasty, on the crumbling steps of hieroglyphic 
lore. But in India, — the cradle, as many believe, of the 
Human Bace — we have no such helps, and while we gaze 
upon the tokens of a faith which was no doubt pre-existent 
to that of the Pharaohs, science sits down baffled and leaves 
us to wander in the dark. No Wilkinson or Champollion 
writes on the altars of the gods : " B. C. — so and so much." 
The whole backward vista of Time is thrown open, and we are 



46 • INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

free to retrace the ages, even to the days when there were 
giants. I no longer marvel at any of the ancient faiths ; I 
only wonder that those vast, strange and gorgeous systems of 
mythology ever should have disappeared from the religions of 
the world, while such types of them remain in existence. 

The Hindoo faith, in its original and pure form, was a 
consistent monotheism, and no doubt is still so understood by 
the more intellectual of its professors. The parent Deity, 
Brehm, was an invisible and Omnipotent God, the maker of 
Heaven and Earth, and like the Divinity of the Buddhists, 
too great for mortal comprehension. The three deities who 
sprang from him may be regarded rather as personifications 
of his attributes than as distinct personalities. These deities, 
who form the Trimurti^ or Hindoo Trinity, are Brahma, the 
Creator, Vishnu, the Preserver, and Shiva, the Destroyer. 
Among the emblems of the latter is a new-born infant, show- 
ing that Life is continually reproduced from Death. From 
these three spring a host of inferior deities, who, with their 
progeny, amount to the number of thirty-three millions, of 
whom three millions are evil, and the remainder good. Here 
the preponderance of Good over Evil in the government of the 
world, and consequently the beneficence of the ruling Deity, 
is strikingly acknowledged. The original faith has greatly 
degenemted, as all the old religions have, and among the 
ignorant millions exists only in the most extraordinary super- 
stitions and the grossest forms of idolatry ; but no one can 
deny the simple grandeur of its first conception. 

However, as I am a traveller, and not a theologian, let me 
return to the subject, which is my visit to the Cave-temples 
of Elephanta. These celebrated remains are upon the Island 



SCENERY OF THE BAY. 47 

of Elephanta, in tlie bay, and about seven miles distant from 
Bombay. I was accompanied by tlie captain of an American 
bark. We engaged a bunder-boat, a craft with a small cabin, 
something like the Jcangia of the Nile, embarked at the 
Apollo pier, and went up the bay with the flood tide. We 
passed the fort and floated along the shore as far as Mazagaun, 
where the wind favored us for a run out to the island. The 
scenery of the bay is beautiful, the difi'erent islands rising 
from the water in bold hills covered with vegetation, while the 
peaks of the Malabar Ghauts cut their sharp outlines against 
the sky, on the opposite side. Butcher's Island, which lies 
between Bombay and Elephanta, is comparatively low and flat, 
and has a barren appearance, but it contains a number of 
European bungalows, and seems to be a favorite place of resi- 
dence. Elephanta, on the contrary, which is about a mile in 
length, is lofty, and covered with palm and tamarind trees. 
Its form is very beautiful, the summit being divided into two 
peaks of unequal height. 

The water is shallow on the western side, and as we ap- 
proached several natives appeared on the beach, who waded 
out two by two, and carried us ashore on their shoulders. A 
well-worn foot-path pointed out the way up the hill, and in a 
few minutes we stood on the little terrace between the two 
peaks, and in front of the temple. The house of the sergeant 
who keeps guard over it still intervened between us and the 
entrance, and before passing it I stood for some time looking 
across to Bombay and Salsette, enchanted with the beauty of 
the prospect before me. More than half the charm, I found, 
lay in the rich, tropical foliage of the foreground. 

Turning, I passed around the screen of some banana trees 



48 . IXDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

and under the boughs of a large tamarind. The original 
entrace to the temple is destroyed, so that it is impossible to 
tell whether there was a solid front and doorway, as in the 
Egyptian rock-temples, or whether the whole interior stood 
open as now. The front view of Elephanta is very picturesque. 
The rock is draped with luxuriant foliage and wild vines, 
brilliant with many-colored blossoms, heightening the myste- 
rious gloom of the pillared hall below, at the farthest ex- 
tremity of which the eye dimly discerns the colossal outlines 
of the tri-formed god of the temple. The chambers on each 
side of the grand hall are open to the day, so that all its 
sculptures can be examined without the aid of torches. The 
rows of rock-hewn pillars which support the roof, are sur- 
mounted by heavy architraves, from which hang the capitals 
and shattered fragments of some whose bases have been 
entirely broken away. The Portuguese, in their zeal for de- 
stroying heathen idols, planted cannon before the entrance of 
the cave, and destroyed many of the columns and sculptured 
panels, but the faces of the colossal Trinity have escaped 
mutilation. 

This, the TrimuHi^ is a grand and imposing piece of 
sculpture, not unworthy of the best period of Egyptian art. 
It reminded me of the colossal figures at Aboo-Simbel, though 
with less of serene grace and beauty. It is a triple bust, and 
with the richly-adorned mitres that crown the heads, rises to 
the height of twelve feet. The central head, which fronts 
the entrance, is that of Brahma, the Creator, whose large, 
calm features, are settled in the repose of conscious power as 
if creation were to him merely an action of the will, and not 
an effort. On his right hand is Vishnu, the Preserver, re* 



THE COLOSSAL TRINITY. 49 

presented in profile. His features are soft and feminine, full 
of mildness and benignity, and are almost Grecian in their 
outlines, except the under lip, which is remarkably thick and 
full. The hair falls in ordered ringlets from under a cap, 
something between a helmet and a mitre. The right arm, 
which is much mutilated, is lifted to the shoulder, and from 
the half-closed hand droops a lotus-blossom. The third mem- 
ber of the Trinity, the terrible Shiva, the Destro3'er, is on the 
left of Brahma, and, like Vishnu, his head is turned so as to 
present the profile. His features are totally difl'erent from 
the other two. His forehead is stern, ridged at the eyebrows ; 
his nose strongly aquiline, and his lips slightly parted, so as 
to show his teeth set, with an expression of fierce cruelty and 
malignity. A cobra twists around his arm and hand, which 
grasps the snake by the neck and holds it on high, with hood 
expanded, ready to strike the deadly blow. 

Nothing astonished me more, in this remarkable group, than 
the distinct individuality of each head. With the exception 
of the thick under lip, which is common to all three, the 
faces are those of difl'erent races. Brahma approaches the 
Egyptian and Vishnu the Grecian type, while Shiva is not 
unlike the Mephistopheles of the modern German schooL 
The group stands in an excavated recess, or shrine, at the 
entrance of which, on each side, are two colossal statues. 
They are more rudely executed, and the faces exhibit a grosser 
type, the nose being broad and slightly flattened, and the lips 
thick and projecting. The hand holds the lotus-flower, and 
the eyes are closed, but the expression of the face is that of 
happy reverie rather than sleep. Had the temple been Budd- 
hist, I should have said that they were meditating their final 

3 



50 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN, 

beatific absorption into the Divine Essence. The same figures 
are seen in other parts of the temple, and their aspect 
perfectly harmonizes with the symbols introduced into the 
purely ornamental parts of its architecture. 

This reminds me of the columns supporting the roof, 
which were unlike any others I had seen. The lower part is 
square, resting on a plinth, but at about half the height it 
becomes circular and fluted — or rather filleted, the compart- 
ments having a plane and not a concave surface. The capital 
is a flattened sphere, of nearly double the diameter of the 
shaft, having a narrow disc, with fluted edges, between it and 
the architrave. I knew these columns must have some type 
in Nature, and puzzled myself to find it. On visiting one of 
the smaller temples on the eastern side of the island, the re- 
semblance flashed upon me at once— it was the poppy-head. 
The globular capital and its low, fluted crown, are copied 
almost without change from the plant, and these two symbols 
— the poppy and the lotus — ^with the closed eyelids and placid 
faces of the colossal guardians, give the whole temple an air 
of mystic and enchanted repos*?. One involuntarily walks 
through its dim and hushed aisles with a softer step, and 
speaks, if he must speak, in an undertone. 

There is something in every form of religion worthy of 
general respect ; and he who does not feel this, can neither 
understand nor appreciate the Art which sprang from the 
ancient Faiths. Our teachers of religion speak with sincere 
and very just horror and contempt of all forms of idolatry ; 
yet, under pain of their anathemas, I dare assert, that he who 
can revile Osiris and Amun-Ee, is unworthy to behold the 
wonders of Thebes.' The Christian need not necessarily be an 



RESPECT FOR THE ANCIENT FAITHS. 51 

iconoclast: nay more, his very faith, in its perfect charity 
and its boundless love, obliges him to respect the shrines 
where the mighty peoples of the ancient world have bowed 
and worshipped. Besides, there is Truth, however dim and 
eclipsed, behind all these outward symbols. Even the naked 
and savage Dinkas of Central Africa worship trees ; and so do 
I. The Parsees worship the sun, as the greatest visible mani- 
festation of the Deity; and I assure you, I have felt very 
much inclined to do the same, when He and I were alone in 
the Desert. But let not the reader, therefore, or because I 
respect the feeling of worship, when expressed in other forms 
than my own, think me a Pagan. 

The walls of the great hall of the temple of Elephanta, 
are divided into tablets, or compartments, each of which con- 
tains, as a central figure, the colossal statue of some god, sur- 
rounded by a host of inferior deities. Few of these have 
escaped the fanatical fury of the Portuguese, but sufiicient 
remains to show the bold and masculine character of the art 
which produced tjiem. The smaller figures are introduced 
above and at the sides of the central god, and some of the 
tablets have a striking resemblance to pictures of the old 
Italian masters, representing a saint surrounded by a cloud 
of cherubs. In the absence of all inscriptions, it is impos- 
sible to determine at what time the temple was excavated. 
The architecture, judged by its style alone, appears to be 
the antecedent of the Egyptian, which would then represent its 
perfect development, modified somewhat by being transplanted 
to a different soil. But I believe that most ethnographers 
now consider that the ancient Egyptians and Hindoos are 



52 • INDIA, CHINA, AND JAP^N. 

kindred branches of one stock, wliose seat is to be looked for 
somewliere in Central Asia. 

Tlie side chambers of the temple are much smaller, and 
the walls are covered in the same manner, with sculptured 
tablets. Some of the figures have been recently smeared with 
red paint, a sign that they are still worshipped by some of 
the Hindoo sects. At the foot of a flight of steps which 
leads to the chambers on the left of the grand hall, two 
curious figures of dogs seated on their hind legs, which have 
been very lately excavated, are erected on pedestals. It 
requires an experienced antiquarian to tell whether they are 
dogs, lions, or dolphins. There are three or four small in- 
closed apartments resembling the adyta of the Egyptian 
lemples. In the centre of each is a low pedestal, or platform, 
tpon which stands a stone about three feet high, with a round- 
ed top — the Lingam, which is one of the most ancient as well 
IS common of the Hindoo symbols. One of these, in particu- 
tir, is still in great repute among the natives, and is resorted 
13 by the Hindoo women, who seat themselves upon it for a 
certain length of time, as a cure for barrenness. I was told 
that an English lady of Bombay, whose marriage had not had 
the desired result, was induced to try the experiment, which, 
to her great surprise, was successful. 

After spending some time in the larger temple, two native 
boys showed us the way to the two smaller ones, which are 
higher up the hill, on its eastern side. Other visitors had 
come in the mean time, and a company of sailors were em- 
ployed in knocking down the pods of the tamarind trees. 
The husk incloses a thick paste, wrapped around the seeds, 
with an intensely acid, but agreeable taste. From the gap 



THE SMALLER TE:\irLES. 53 

between tlie two peaks of the islands, we looked down into a 
lovely little valley on the opposite side, gradually widening to 
the water, near which was a native hamlet. I longed to pitch 
my tent in one of its palm-groves, and to spend a week in 
studying the strange gods in the caverns above. 

The smaller temples liave been much mutilated. The 
entrances are nearly filled up with rubbish, and the inner 
chambers are now the abodes of the jackal and the serpent. 
They were too dark to be properly seen without torches, which 
we had not, but I could perceive that many of them contained 
the upright stone, and the usual sculptured tablets on the 
walls. The outer courts of both were supported by elegant 
poppy-headed pillars, a few of w^hich have escaped destruction. 
Excavation would no doubt reveal much that is now hidden, 
but the Governnment has no taste for such things, and there 
are few archaeologists in Bombay. The most that has been 
done is to build a cottage and station a sergeant at the en- 
trance of the great temple, in order to prevent visitors from 
injuring the sculptures. 

The afternoon shadows were growing long by this time, 
admonishing us to return. The Avind had risen, and as it was 
not entirely favorable, we were obliged to run up the bay, past 
a point of the Island of Salsette, before we could make a tack 
for the city. Instead of going on to Bombay, however, we 
landed at the pier of Mazagaun, and drove to the Botanic 
Garden, near the Governor's residence, at Parell. The garden 
is laid out with great taste, and filled with a variety of rare 
tropical trees, among which are several superb Brazilian palms. 
I there saw the first banyan-tree, but the specimen was too 
young to justify its fame. The flaming blossoms of the 



64 • INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

azalias, pelargoniums and sagittarias first deepened in liue, 
and then grew dusky and indistinct in tlie fading flush of 
sunset, as I wandered through the palmy alleys, breathing of 
"nard and cassia," and the voluptuous Persian rose. But 
the short southern twilight sank away, and I rode back to 
Bombay, with the silvery, meteoric lustre of the zodiacal 
light gleaming over my path. 



CHA.PTEII IV. 

A NAUTCH AMONG THE PAR8EES. 

New-Teat's Day— A Tropical Gift— AParsee Bungalow— Our Reception— Chewing the 
Betel-Nut- The Nautch -Girls— Thoir Dances— Supper— Prejudices of Caste— The 
Bengalee Dance — A Gilded Bridegroom — Piercing Music— Ship-Building in Bombay 
-Education of the Natives— Their Appeals to Parliament. 

The morning of New- Year's Day, 1853, dawned clear and 
beautiful. Lord Falkland, Governor of the Bombay Presi- 
dency, gave a splendid ball at his residence at Parell, on the 
previous evening. The simple ceremony of calling upon him 
would have insured me an invitation ; but as I carelessly neg- 
lected to do this, and therefore missed the ball, I accepted the 
more readily an invitation to attend a nautch at the country 
residence of my Parsee friends, on the following evening. A 
servant came to my room early on New- Year's morning, with 
a tray heaped with fruit, a large bunch of roses, and a polite 
note from Dossabhoy Merwanjee Wadya and his associates, 
containing the compliments of the season, and an invitation 
to be at Parell at half-past nine o'clock. I could not help 
being struck with the difference between New- Year in Bom- 
bay and in New Y ork. While my friends were making their 



56 . INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

round of calls, muffled in furs, and with red noses and frosty 
hands, I was sitting on an open verandah, as lightly clad as 
possible, looking down on the palms and papayas in the gar- 
dens below, and listening to the songs of birds gathered on 
all the house-tops, my New- Year's gift consisting of a pum- 
melow (a fruit resembling the shaddock, but of much finer 
flavor), a pile of oranges and golden bananas, and a jpawn^ 
for chewing, wrapped in a gilded betel-leaf. 

Three countrymen — all who were in Bombay, with the 
exception of the Missionaries — were also invited, as well as 
two Englishmen, but the remainder of the guests were native, 
Parsee and Hindoo. A pleasant drive of five miles brought 
us to the country-house, which was built on land granted to 
the family by the East India Company, on account of the 
services they have rendered as ship-builders. It was a spa- 
cious one-story bungalow, and brilliantly lighted up for the 
occasion with hanging lamps of cocoa-nut oil, which gives out 
a very delicate and pleasant perfume while burning. We 
were ushered into a hall, around the sides of which were 
couches made in imitation of sofas, and not so lazy and luxu- 
rious as the Turkish divan. The floor was carpeted, and the 
musicians and nautch-girls were seated in a group in one 
corner. 

Dossabhoy, and our friends, Hirjeebhoy, the head builder 
in the Bombay dock-yard, Jamsetjee and Cursetjee, received 
us cordially, and immediately on taking our seats, bunches of 
fragrant roses were presented to us, over which fresh rose-water 
was sprinkled from a silver vase. Another servant then appeared 
with a tray oi pawns, which the Parsees were already chewing 
vigorously. Indeed, you rarely see a native, of whatever 



CHEWING THE BETEL-NUT. 57 

condition, without a pawn in liis mouth. They are composed 
of chips of betel-nut, cardamum seeds and betel-leaf, to which 
some add lime made from mussel-shells. In order to be like 
the rest, I commenced chewing, and found the taste very much 
like sassafras, but more astringent. It is by no means dis- 
agreeable, and must be rather conducive to health than other- 
wise, or it would not have become a universal custom. Both 
the leaf and nut are excellent tonics.* The juice only is swal- 
lowed, but the practice of chewing makes both the mouth and 
teeth, for the time, of a bright red color. I was quite shocked 
on landing, to see so many natives (as I thought) spitting 
blood. 

In a short time the musicians had finished tuning their 
instruments, and the two nautch-girls (bayaderes) took their 
places on the floor. The word hayadere is a French invention, 
and is unknown in India. These girls were about tweny-five 
years of age, small in stature, dark-brown in complexion, plain 
in features, and inert and languid in expression. They were 
far from being as handsome or graceful as the Almclis who 
danced for us in the temple of Luxor. They wore full robes 
of a gay color, descending nearly to the ancle, but confined by 
a broad shawl so far below their hips as to restrict the motion 



* Prof. Johnston says : " On those who are accustomed to use it, the 
betel produces weak but continuous and sustained exhilarating effects. 
And that these are of a most agreeable kind, may be inferred from the 
very extended area over "svhich the chewing of betel prevails, among 
Asiatic nations. In the damp and pestilent regions of India, where the 
natives live upon a spare and miserable diet, it is really very conducive 
to health. Part of its healthful influence in fever-breeding districts is 
probably to be ascribed to the pepper-leaf which is chewed along with 
the betel-nut." 



58 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAJ'AN. 

of their feefc. They had also shawls around their heads, 
trowsers of red silk, and slippers. The musicians commenced 
singing a melancholy, monotonous measure, with a lively ac- 
companiment on their lutes. The girls joined in the singing, 
occasionally lifting their arms with the utmost deliberation, 
or slightly shifting the position of their feet. Now one ad- 
vanced a few steps and as slowly retreated, now the other. I 
never saw a dance so spiritless and inexpressive. 

Some of the songs, on the other hand, pleased me exceed- 
ingly. Less wild and barbaric than the Arab chants, they 
are pervaded with the same expression of longing and of love, 
and though sung by voices which were occasionally shrill and 
harsh, still preserved a touching air of tenderness. After 
witnessing two or three dances, we were called into the other 
room, to a collation of fruits and sweetmeats, in which the 
Parsees joined us, contrary to the usual custom of their sect. 
This restriction, however, does not seem to be a part of their 
faith, but to have resulted from a long residence among the 
Hindoos, who maintain such a religious distinction of caste, 
that to the Brahmin, the mere touch of one of the lower 
orders is defilement, and can only be removed by bathing 
and change of apparel. The Mussulmans in India have 
adopted the same notions, and will neither eat with Christians 
nor drink from the same vessels. 

During the interval, the nautch-girls made a change in the 
fashion of their dress, by binding their robes in such a man- 
ner that they reached only to the knees,' and giving their 
turbans a flattened form, like those worn by the natives of 
Bengal. In fact, the dance which succeeded was called the 
Bengalee. It differed little from the preceding, except that 



THE BENGALEE -DANCE. 59 

the measure was more animated, and the languid shuffling of 
the feet done in somewhat quicker time. The song which 
accompanied it was translated to me, and ran thus : " My be- 
loved Nabob, take me to Calcutta : with the howdah on the 
elephant, the saddle on the horse." This is the style of 
poetry of which these songs are usually composed, but some 
of them cannot be so safely translated. There are nautch- 
girls who have a fame among the natives equal to that of 
Taglioni or Ellsler in Europe, and who are paid at the rate 
of five hundred rupees a night, but they are to be found at 
the Courts of the native sovereigns in Northern India, where 
the nautches are got up on a grand scale. 

The previous evening, on my way home from the Botanic 
Garden, I met a magnificent marriage procession in the streets 
of the native town. First came a large number of beautiful 
children in open vehicles, the pearls and spangles of their 
dresses glittering in the light of torches, which were borne 
on long poles, and waved in riotous jubilee to the sound of 
the music. Behind them were boys in jewelled robes, on 
horseback, with servants holding golden-fringed umbrellas 
above their heads. The music — a piercing medley of fifes, 
drums, and lutes — came next, and then the bridegroom, 
mounted on a white horse. He was a man of about twenty, 
clad in splendid robes of white silk, embroidered with gold. 
His turban gleamed with pearls, and his cheeks and forehead 
^ere covered with gold leaf. He was a living El Dorado, but 
*at so grave and motionless on his horse, staring straight 
before him, that he might have been taken for a bedizened 
statue. A servant, holding a silver screen resembling a fan, 
walked on each side of him, and behind him came the dowry, 



60 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

borne on men's heads. It was contained in twenty or thirty 
miniature houses, arranged so as to form a quadrangle, with a 
temple in the centre. 

I passed a number of houses illuminated for marriage fes- 
tivities, and from one of them there came the sound of a flute 
more shrill and piercing, I have no doubt, than any otlier 
flute in the world. Its tones were so intensely shrill as to 
become tangible. They were shot out of the open windows 
like barbed arrows, and whenever any one struck you it was 
followed by a keen sense of pain. They flew whistling down 
the street, rattling against the walls, transfixing all civilized 
ears and torturing all susceptible nerves, i shudder, even 
now, to think of the smarts I endured while passing that 
house. 

The Wadya family, to which my host belonged, have been 
for more than half a century the ship-builders of Bombay. 
The vicinity of the teak forests has occasioned the building of 
several ships of the line for the British Navy in the dock- 
yard there. The first of these, the Minden, has been in 
service for nearly fifty years, and her condition still attests 
the excellence of her construction. It was between her 
decks, while lying off Fort McHenry, that Francis Key wrote 
our " Star-spangled Banner." The present head-builder, 
Hirjeebhoy Merwanjee, had on the stocks at the time of my 
visit, two steamships of eighteen hundred tons each. He was 
nearly three years in England, studying his profession, and 
has published a work in English, giving his views of English 
institutions and society. The Government has done much 
for the natives in the establishment of such institutions as the 
Grant Medical College, the Elphinstone Institution, and 



THE NATIVES AND THE GOVEllNMENT. 61 

others; bnt mucli still remains to be done. The amount ex 
pended for educational purposes in the Bombay Presidency, 
is about £12,500, which is insufficient to support any general 
system of instruction. The Board of Education consists of 
three English residents and three natives ; in its operation it 
embraces instruction in the Mahratta and Guzeratee, as well 
as the English and Hindostanee languages. The Elphinstone 
Institution has at present about 1,400 scholars, the great pro- 
portion of whom are studying in the English department. 
They are, however, first required to pass in the vernacular 
languages. The respect in which such men as Mountstuart 
Elphinstone and Sir Charles Forbes are held by the natives, 
shows how truly they appreciate every effort for their improve- 
ment, and how eagerly they would respond to any measure 
which had their good in view. 

The more intelligent of the natives took advantage of the 
approaching renewal of the East India Company's Charter 
(which expired in April, 1854), to form associations and draw 
up memorials for presentation to Government, in which they 
represented the disadvantages of the present system in its effect 
on the native population. The movement was rather too late 
to be productive of much effect, but it was interesting as show- 
ing the temper of the native subjects in India. I saw none 
of the memorials except that of the Bombay Association, which 
was drawn up by Dr. Bhawoo Dajee. It was an admirably 
written document, moderate and respectful, but at the same 
time firm and dignified in its tone, stating with great clear- 
ness the causes of complaint, and suggesting means of reaiCss. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE BAXGHY CART. 

Preparations fur Departure— Warnings— Filial Gratitude— Tiie Banghy Cart— A Night- 
Gallop tiirougli Bombay— Tbe Island Eoad— Ferry to the Mainland— Despotism of 
the Banghy-Cart— Morning Scenery— The Bungalow -Breakfast —The Sun as a Phy- 
sician—An Army of Bullocks— Climbing tbe Ghauts— Natural Pagodas— The Sum- 
mit—A Kind Sergeant— The Second Day— Resemblance to Mexico— Natives and 
Villages— The Menagerie Man in Egypt— An English Cantonment- Dhoolia— The 
Lieuteriant and his Hospitality— A Eough Road— Accident— Waitii.g in the Jungle— 
f he Bullock-Cart— Halt at Secrpore. 

■\ s I was bound for Cliina, and could spare but a very sKort 
.ime for my journeys in India, I remained only a week iu 
Bombay. The information given me by my English friends 
did not furnish a very satisfactory prospect of visiting Delhi 
and the Himalayas, and reaching Calcutta, within the space of 
two months, without a much greater expenditure of money 
than I was prepared to make. The usual mode of travelling 
had up to ^hat time been by palanquin, a mode as costly as it 
is disagreeable. The post-road to Agra, however, had recently 
been made passable for a small cart which carried the mails, 
and just before my arrival a hanghy-cart had commenced run- 
ning from Bombay tolndore, a distance of 375 miles, or about 



PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE. 



63 



half-way to the former city. A hanghy means, I believe, a 
package, or something of that sort, and the cart answers to a 
package-express. Mr. Cowasjee Ruttonjee, the contractor, 
assured me that the trip would positively be made within six 
days, travelling day and night. The fare was four annas 
(twelve cents) per mile, or nearly $47, exclusive of expenses 
by the way. This, for India, was considered cheap travelling, 
and I resolved to make a trial of it. I was obliged to give up 
the idea of taking a servant with me, and to trust entirely to 
about twenty words of Hindostanee, which I had picked up on 
board the Achilles. Many were the evil predictions made to 
me by most of my English friends : " You can never stand the 
fatigue; you can get nothing to eat; you will be perfectly 
helpless if any thing happens," etc. But an old officer, who 
had travelled not only over all India but nearly all the world, 
wisely comforted me. " Never mind what these people say," 
said he ; " they are accustomed to travel luxuriously, with re- 
tinues of servants. Depend upon it, you will get along without 
the least difficulty." 

I sent my heavy baggage by the steamer to Calcutta, lim- 
iting myself to two small carpet-bags, which was all that 
Cowasjee would take in his cart. My Hindoo servant, with 
the one red and two white stripes on his forehead, procured 
me a native tailor, who made me several pairs of pantaloons, 
of a shape so remarkable that I have not been able to wear 
them, to this day. Perhaps as I grow older, my form will ap- 
proach nearer to the standard of Hindoo Art, and they w.ill 
then become serviceable. The striped servant looked very 
forlorn and disconsolate, as he carried my carpet-bags from 
Pallanjee's Hotel to the Express Office, on the evening of the 



64 . INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

3d of Jamiary. " my master ! " he bewailed : " I am werry 
sorry to part with you. You are my father, and I am your 
SOD. my father, I shall never forget you ! " Considering 
that he was of a da-rk-brown complexion., forty years old, and 
rather ill-favored, I was not anxious to accept the relationship, 
but, not to be wanting in parental regard, I gave him nearly 
double the wages agreed upon. Not only did he show no grat- 
itude, but importuned me for more — so little filial affection is 
there in India ! 

The banghy-cart was in readiness before Cowasjee's office, 
when I arrived. It was a square, springless buggy, with a 
white canvas top, and extremely heavy shafts and wheels. 
My baggage and the packages for the interior were stowed in 
the body of the vehicle, the driver and I took our seats, 
Cowasjee inclined his body and touched his Parsee mitre, and 
away we dashed into Monument-scjuare. A groom ran at the 
horse's head till we were fairly under way, and then climbed 
upon the box behind us. We went out of the gates of the 
Fort, crossed the esplanade, and entered the busy native town, 
where we encountered two marriage processions. The red 
torches glittered on pearls and gold embroidery, on the silver 
pyramids of the dowry, and the rainbow silks of the women. 
Our horse, frightened by the noise of the drums and cymbals 
dashed off furiously, making directly for a blank wail, before 
which several persons were passing. The driver seemed pow- 
erless, and we came instantly upon the wall, catching one of 
the natives between it and the wheel. I sprang forward, seized 
the reins and drew the horse around just in time to save the 
man's life, though not, I fear, to prevent his being badly in- 
jured. The hoYSd now started at a mad gallop down the 



THE ISLANDS AT NIGHT. 65 

street, wliieli was crowded with people. The driver stooped 
down and raised to his mouth something which, in the dark- 
ness, resembled a bottle. He did indeed take a horn — and 
blew the most terribie blasts, as we careered onwards like 
Shiva, the Destroyer, the white-robed, ghost-like natives scat- 
tering on all sides before iis. I grasped the top of the cart 
tightly and awaited the result, for the horse swerved from 
side to side in such a manner that a crash seemed inevitable. 
However, in less time than it has taken to write these lines, 
we were outside of Bombay, and the cessation of noise and 
glare restored the animal to his senses. 

There was no moon, but we had the brilliant starlight of 
the tropics, and for an hour after leaving, the zodiacal light 
stood like a shining obelisk in the west. The road was broad, 
and as smooth and as hard as a floor, and in less than an hour 
we reached the first station. Another horse was in readiness, 
and not less mettlesome than the first, so that we made fully 
six miles an hour. The road was embowered in mango, syca- 
more, palm and tamarind trees, whose breath made the night 
warm and balmy. Our lamps shed transient gleams on the 
rich masses of foliage, and I was so delighted with the pictures 
thus brought out of the darkness on either hand, that I 
reached the end of the gardens and of Bombay Island with 
regret. A solid stone causeway extends across the shallow 
strait to the Island of Salsette, whose hills now rose dimly 
before me. In these hills are the caves and temples of Ken- 
ary. During my stay at Bombay I had not time to visit them, 
but I was informed that they are on a much smaller scale than 
those of Elephanta, though so numerous that the natives 
reckon their number at nine hundred. 



66 • INDIA, CHINA, AND J^PAN. 

We clianored horses twice on the island of Salsette, once at 
a village of mud and bamboo huts, so thoroughly Egyptian in 
appearance that I could have believed myself on the banks of 
the Nile. At midnight we reached tke northern end of the 
island, which is about twenty miles in length. We roused 
the sleepy ferrymen, who dragged the cart upon a platform 
laid across two small boats, and slowly rowed us over to the 
mainland of India. The strait, as well as I could distinguish, 
is very crooked, and not more than a quarter of a mile in 
breadth. Up to this time I had not spoken, nor been spoken 
to, for a very good reason, but no sooner was the cart hauled 
ashore, than the boatmen came up to me exclaiming : " kishti- 
ivalla: chirramirry ! ''^ (xls much as to say; "we are the 
boatmen, giv^e us a gratuity." I remembered the words, and 
found them next morning in my vocabulary.) I gave them a 
small fee, and then the driver came up, saying " Salaam, sahib 
— chirramirry ! " So there could be no doubt as to the mean- 
ing of " chirramirry." 

With a new driver and a new horse I again started for- 
ward. The country was more open and undulating, and all 
signs of gardens and residences disappeared. Now and then 
we passed a mud village, and about every hour changed horses 
at a rude station, before reaching which the driver blew 
furious peals upon his trumpet. In consequence of this, we 
generally found the horse in waiting, end experienced no 
delay in changing. The night wore away, the waning moon 
came up, and then the morning-star ; the travelling natives, 
encamped among the trees, began to bestir themselves, and 
with the first streak of daylight their heavy ox-wagons were 
in motion. Now came the horn again into play, and thence- 



MORNING SCENERY. 67 

forth there was no jessation of its warning blasts. Every 
thing must give way to the banghy-cart. Woe to the native 
who, having heard the horn half a piile behind him, still dozed 
3n, allowing his jjlodding cattle to keep tne best track. Down 
jumped the groom, battering the beasts out of the way, and 
a touch of the driver's whip not seldom quickened the 
senses of their masters. No one dared to remonstrate, for the 
banghy-cart is attached to the Post-Oihce Department. 

Morning showed me an open, rolling country, studded 
here and there with clumps of trees, and showing occasional 
signs of cultivation. As it was then the dry season, the grass 
was brown and withered, and the soil parched. The sea was 
out of sight, and the broken ranges of the Ghauts before me, 
seemed near at hand. The road was broad and good, and 
bridged over the gullies, but so beaten by continual travel, 
that we swept along in a cloud of dust. I hailed the rising 
sun with the fervor of a Parsee, for the night had been so 
cold, that in spite of a thick great-coat, I was chilled to the 
very bones. I was getting hungry, also, and knowing that we 
must be approaching a bungalow, I took out Forbes's Hindos- 
tanee grammar, and began searching for the words to express 
my wants. Having prepared a sufficient stock of nouns, and 
the verbs " bring " and " give," I deemed myself capable of 
achieving a breakfast. 

But first, it is necessary to explain the meaning of a bun- 
galow. I believe it is the general term in India for a resi- 
dence of the better class, as the English, except in large cities, 
always speak of their houses as "bungalows." On all the 
principal lines of road throughout the country, the Govern- 
ment has erected bungalows, at intervals of from ten to twenty 



68 INDIA, CHINA, AND_ JAPAN. 

miles, for tlie accommodation of European travellers. The 
natives have their serais, resembling the Turkish khans, and 
unless travelling by post, are not admitted into the bungalows. 
The latter are plain but sui )stantial cottages, furnished only 
with tables, chairs, and bedsteads, and generally containing 
two dining and two sleeping apartments. There are out- 
houses for the residence of a native servant, called a peon, who 
has charge of the establishment, and for the cooks, or mess- 
men, who are obliged to procure supplies and prepare meals 
according to a fixed scale of prices. For the use of the bun- 
galow, each traveller pays one rupee (fifty cents) per day. 
Were it not for this excellent arrangement, one would be 
obliged to take tents and all the paraphernalia of a house- 
hold, and to carry supplies with him from place to place. A 
register for the names of travellers is kept in each bungalow, 
and they are requested to note the sums paid, in order to pre- 
vent dishonesty on the part of the peons. By nine o'clock 
we reached the village of Khurdee, sixty-four miles from 
Bombay. The word "hazree" (breakfast) conveyed my in- 
tention to the driver, and he answered : " Achcha, sahib " 
(very well, sir). I succeeded so well with the messman that in 
an hour an excellent curry and omelette smoked upon the 
table. The natives, all along the road, have ingrafted some 
English words upon the Hindostanee, and frequently use them 
in a very amusing manner. Whenever I asked for eggs, I 
was almost sure to be asked in return : " Salf hiled or mom- 
let ? " I was provident enough to supply myself with a paper of 
tea in Bombay, since it is not always to be had on the road. 

On getting into the cart, at the last station before reach- 
ing Khurdee, the step broke, and as I fell, my knee struck 



SUN-CURE AN ARMV OF BULLOCKS. 69 

upon a projecting bolt, causing siicli intense pain as almost to 
deprive me of mj senses By the time we halted again, the 
joint was so stifi' that I ojuld scarcely bend it. The hurt pro- 
duced such a chilliness that my teeth chattered, and I was 
fain to sit in the sun while breakfast was preparing. The 
morning was scorchingly hot, and I soon noticed that the heat 
seemed to draw out the pain from the injured limb. In fact, 
after sunning it half an hour I was able to get up and walk as 
usual, and thenceforth never felt the slightest inconvenience 
from the injury. This is a case of sun-cure, which I recommend 
to any one who is anxious to start a new system of healing. 

Khurdee lies at the base of the G-hauts, and our road now 
plunged into a wild, hilly region, covered with jungle. The 
road was broad, but very rough, and so steep that nothing but 
the emigrant trail over the Sierra Nevada could equal it. At 
the worst descents, my conductor called upon the aid of half a 
dozen bullock-drivers, who seized the shafts and pushed back- 
ward with all their force. Our progress was still further 
hindered by the endless throng of bullocks which we met. 
They were laden with bags of rice and of grain, and " bales of 
cotton, and on their way downward to the coast. Between 
Khurdee and Kussara, a distance of twelve miles, we must 
have passed from fifteen to twenty thousand of them. They 
were all heavily laden, and jogging on at a slow, patient walk, 
which would carry them about ten miles a day. Those, how- 
ever, who are trained to harness and employed by the natives 
as draught animals, easily travel twenty-five miles a day, even 
on a long journey. Though the cow is such a sacred beast in 
India, there is no end to the labor imposed upon her childiCn, 
nor is she herself always spared. 



70 INDIA, CHINA J AND JAPAN.' 

We were nearly four hours in making tlie twelve miles 
over tlie pass of Kudtoondee, and then came down upon 
Kussara, a little village situated in a dell at the foot of the 
Tull Ghaut. The highest parapet of the range was now 
above us, and the final ascent to the table-land commenced. 
The physical formation of this part of India very much re- 
sembles that of the Western Coast of Mexico. The summit 
level is nearly uniform, but instead of presenting a mural 
front, it thrusts out projecting spurs or headlands, and is 
cloven by deep gorges. Sharp peaks rise here and there from 
the general level, formed of abrupt but gradually diminishing 
terraces, crowned by domes or towers of naked rock. At a 
distance, they bear an extraordinary resemblance to works of 
art, and what is very striking, to the ancient temples of the 
Hindoos. Is this an accidental resemblance, or did not the old 
races in reality get their forms of architecture directly from 
Nature ? It is certainly a striking coincidence that all the 
hills in the Nubian Desert should be pyramids, and all the 
peaks of the Indian Ghauts pagodas. The word ghaut means 
a flight of steps, as the Ghauts are a succession of terraces 
descending from the table-land to the sea ; and every principal 
Hindoo temple is approached by a ghaut. The formation of 
the summits is a characteristic* of Indian scenery. Tennyson, 
who, I believe, has never been in India, describes in two lines 
the most peculiar aspects of the country : 

" And over hills withpealcy tops engrailed, 
And many a tract of palm and rice, 
The throne of Indian Cam a slowly sailed, 

A summer fanned with spice." ,- — .^^^ 

There is a splendid artificial road leading up the 'Full 



THE KIND SERGExVNT. 71 

Griiaut. As a piece of engineering, it will vie with some of 
the best roads in Europe. The grade is so slight that we 
drove all the way on a fast trot, and the windings around the 
sides of the gorge gave me grand views of the lower terraces 
of the Grhauts. At the top, we entered on the great table- 
land of Central India. It was an open, undulating region, 
rn'iih better cultivated than any I had 3^et seen, and crossed, 
at intervals of twenty to thirty miles, by high ranges of hills. 
The air, was drier and purer than below, and the setting sun 
shone broad and warm over tracts of wheat and sugar-cane. 
We rolled along merrily, through the twilight and into the 
darkness again, and towards nine o'clock came to the large 
town and military station of Nassick. 

I went directly to the bungalow, for I was quite ready for 
dinner. An Englishman came out of one of the rooms, and 
not only assisted me in ordering the meal, but sent his own 
servant to help get it ready. He evidently took me for an 
officer (for a traveller is a rare sight in India), and meekly 
remarked, " I am only a sergeant, in the Engineers Corps. 
I caught the fever in the jungles at Khurdee, and have been 
sent up here to recover." I was very much fatigued, and lay 
down upon the bare bedstead, while dinner was preparing. 
The sergeant brought his pillow and placed it under my head, 
and when I awoke after two hours' sleep, I found his cloak 
carefully wrapped around me and himself tenderly watching, 
that nothing might disturb my slumbers. It was nearly mid- 
night before the banghy-cart came. I took leave of the kind- 
hearted sergeant, and we set out at a slow pace. We had 
already crossed the watershed of India, and soon after leaving 
Nassick, forded the Godavery one of the largest streams in 



72 IKDIA, CHINA, AKD JAPAN. 

the country, which empties into the sea on the Coromandel 
C oast, not far from Madras. Soon afterwards we entered a 
large town by a gateway, with a Moorish arch, and threaded 
the silent streets — a scene which recalled forcibly to my 
mind, a midnight ramble through the town of Ekhmin, in 
Upper Egypt. 

All the rest of the night we travelled slowly along;, 
through a rolling country, and about nine next morning reached 
Chandore, only forty-five miles from Nassick. Chandore is a 
walled town, situated in a hollow at the foot of the Chandore 
Ghaut. It boasts several Hindoo temples of dark stone, but 
none of them remarkable for size or beauty. The gro- 
tesque idols, their faces smeared with red paint, were visible 
through the open door. I went to the bungalow for breakfast, 
and was obliged to wait three hours before the cart came — a 
delay which enabled me to get a little more sleej). Neverthe- 
less, the heat uad. glare of the noonday sun so disposed me to 
drowsiness, that I was several times on the point of tumbling 
out of the cart. I should have stated that at Khurdee we 
changed vehicles, and after that I had nothing but a square box 
on wheels, without springs or cover. We crossed the Chan- 
dore Ghaut by a wild pass, half way up which stands a pagoda, 
so old and black that it might properly belong to the Yezidees, 
or Devil-Worshippers. Beyond the Ghaut we came upon a 
waste, hilly region, entirely covered with thorny jungle. 

All this part of India reminded me strongly of the table- 
land of Mexico. There are the same broad, sweeping plains, 
gashed by deep ravines and gullies ; the same barren chains 
of hills, and the same fertil3 dips of lowland, rich in corn and 
cane. I passed through moi / than one landscape, where, if I 



RESEMBLANCE TO MEXICO. 73 

had been brought blindfold and asked to guess wliere I was, I 
should have declared at once : " This is Mexico." Substitute 
the words nulla for " arroyo," (gully,) ghaut for " sierra,'' 
and jungle for " chapparal," and you change a description of 
the Mexican into that of the Indian table-land. I must 
admit, however, that,^in general, Mexican scenery is on a 
broader and grander scale than here. We Americans need 
not envy England the possession of India ; for, if we were 
not a people obstinately opposed to the acquisition of new 
territory — if we were not utterly blind to " manifest destiny," 
and regardless of the hints which " Greography " is constantly 
throwing out to us — we might possess ourselves of Cuba and 
Mexico, and thus outrival her. Some of my readers may 
laugh at the absurdity of such an idea ; but when a man is 
travelling alone, among a strange people, he is scarcely respon- 
sible for all that comes into his head. 

The resemblance to Mexico, however, does not extend to 
the towns and population, which are rather those of Egypt. 
The Indian native is darker than the Egyptian Fellah, and 
has a more acute and lively face, but in his habits and man- 
ners he has much in common with the latter. He has the 
same natural quickness of intellect, the same capacity for de- 
ception, the same curious mixture of impudence and abject 
servility, and the same disregard of clothing. The houses are 
low cabins of mud and bamboo, or in the larger villages, of 
mud and unburnt bricks, with mud divans in front, and some- 
times thatched verandahs resting on wooden pillars. Noth- 
ing can be more miserable than the appearance of the smaller 
villages, which are even inferior to those of the Nile Delta, 
and T should like to exhibit them to an original Englishman 



74 • INDIA, CHINA, AND J^PAN. 

who went in the same boat with me from Alexandria to Cairo. 
As we were passing one of the villages on the Nile, he came 
up to me with a horrified expression of face, grasped my arm, 
pointed to the huts, and exclaimed: " Look there ! people ac- 
tually live there ! " " Is it possible ? " said I, with as much 
astonishment as I could command, on such short notice. 
"Yes," he replied; "Good God, it's dreadful!" This man 
was a son of a keeper of a menagerie, and was on his way to 
Central Africa, in search of the Great Hydrocephalus, or 
some other unknown monster. He was in a furious state of 
indignation, because Discount & Co., the bankers at Alexan- 
dria, had taken four per cent, commission on his letter of 
credit. " It's only a month since I left England," said he, 
"and that's four per cent, a month, and that makes forty- 
eight per cent, a year. Suppose I had been a year on the 
way, I should have been ruined. If I had money enough to 
buy the Hydrocephalus, I should not draw a penny, and then 
they would have to refund the whole of it. But I'll write a 
letter to The Times, and we'll see how much more business 
of that sort they'll do." 

To return to the banghy-cart : we rolled on all the after- 
noon through alternate jungle and cultivated land, and 
toward evening reached Mulleigaum, a military cantonment. 
It is situated in the middle of an open plain, which, although 
apparently barren, needs but irrigation to make it one vast 
garden. The neat bungalows of the English ofl&cers are em- 
bowered in foliage and blossoms, which water alon6 has 
coaxed out of the soil. The orchards of bananas dropped 
their plumy leaves, and the thick hedges of Persian roses, 
crimson with blossoms, scented the air far and wide. Through 



i 



DHOOLIA THE LIEUTENANT. 75 

the verandahs and open doors I caught glimpses of elegant 
furniture and pictures within, and once a female figure glided 
past. I had fancied India to be a place of exile, but nothing 
could be more cheerful and homelike than these residences. 
The sepoys were drawn up on the parade-ground for evening 
review, and a most soldierly appearance they made. We 
drove to the post-office, and as I had not time to take dinner, 
I accepted the services of a Portuguese who spoke English, 
and who offered to procure me supplies for the road. He 
obtained some biscuits, boiled some eggs, and made me a bot- 
tle of strong tea, but refused to accept of the slightest pay for 
his services. 

Thus supplied, I entered on the third night of my jour- 
ney. It was somewhat cloudy and dark, and I could only 
observe that our road lay over the same wide uplands, except 
for a few miles, when passing the Lulling Ghaut. The way 
was rough and stony, and the thumps I received kept me from 
falling into the road through drowsiness. An hour past mid- 
night I reached the military station of Dhoolia, 215 miles 
from Bombay, and was not sorry when the driver informed 
me that he should go no further that night. Off I started for 
the bungalow, and on reaching it, was surprised to find the 
rooms lighted, and a man in English dress on the verandah. 
He held a small lantern before him, which prevented my see- 
ing his face. "Is this the travellers' bungalow?" I asked. 
He said nothing, but threw the light of the lamp full upon 
my face, held it there a few moments, and then cried out : 
"Why, you're a traveller! Yes. Come in. It's full, but 
I'll make room for you. I'm just taking a cup of tea : will 
you take tea, or beer, or brandy-and-water ? Itchoglan! 



76 • INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

bring tea I " There was no resisting such a rapid welcome, 
and before I had time to put in a word of explanation, I was 
seated on one end of the table, drinking a cup of tea with the 
Lieutenant, for such he proved to be. Meanwhile, he was 
giving orders on all sides. One servant ran for a bedstead ; 
another for a pillow; a third for a quilt. "I'll make you 
comfortable," said he ; " you didn't expect such rough times, 
did you now ? You thought India was like England, didn't 
you ? That's the way. But you want to go to bed. Here, 
let my servants pull off your boots, and help you undress. 
You never did that in England, you know, and you won't 
know how to go about it." And so he ran on, what length 
of time I cannot tell, for I no sooner lay down, than I fell 
fast asleep. 

I was awakened at sunrise by bis servant, with a cup of 
tea and a plate of biscuit. The Lieutenant walked with me 
to the Post- Office, and as the cart was not ready, took me to 
the bungalow of some other officers, who immediately invited 
me to breakfast. The conversation was so exclusively mili- 
tary, that I did not feel much interested in it. So-and-so, of 
the 99th, was going to sell out ; such-a-one, of " Ours," had 
applied for two months' leave, etc. Presently the cart came, 
and I took a cordial leave of them all. The road, after leav- 
ing Dhoolia, became indescribably bad. The soil was a soft 
brown loam, which, after the rains, had been terribly cut up 
by the heavy bullock-carts, and was now hard and dry. Our 
horse stumbled slowly along over the ruts, a groom leading 
him by the head. The country was crossed by deep nullas, 
jor gulleys, many of which were very difficult to pass. The 
scenery presented no new features, except a singular isolated 



A BREAK DOWN IN THE JUNGLE. 77 

hill, resembling a fortress, near Soongheer. Beyond this 
point it was mostly hilly jungle, with few habitations. Dur- 
ing the afternoon, we passed three elephants, which were 
standing in the shade of a large peepul tree, motionless as if 
hewn out of basaltic rock. 

It was already two o'clock, and we had only proceeded 
about twenty miles from Dhoolia, when the axle suddenly 
snapped under the repeated jolts, and I was thrown into the 
road. I escaped with a slight bruise, and sat down in the 
jungle to await the issue. As I could neither give nor take 
suggestions, I was silent ; but I had with me that exhaustless 
fountain of patience, a pipe, and soon attained a mood of 
cheerful indifference as to what might happen. The driver 
took out the baggage and packages, and sat down with them 
on the opposite side of the road ; the groom took the horse 
and galloped off. An hour passed by ; two hours ; and still 
we sat in silence, watching the procession of Hindoos, Mos- 
lems, bullocks, ponies and camels that came and went between 
us. At last a bullock-cart dashed up on a fast trot, the bag- 
gage was packed upon it, I took my seat and away we went, 
leaving the broken banghy-cart in the road. Was that the last 
of it ? the reader may ask. We shall see. 

We reached a place called Seerpore, at dusk, our brave 
bullocks having made ten miles in two hours. I had supper, 
a good night's rest, and breakfast, and there was still no 
sign of the cart. The messman, who was very civil and at- 
tentive, informed me that it would be mended by noon. 
Meanwhile, there was I, I knew not precisely where. I could 
not find the place on the map. That it was in India I was cer- 
tain, because there was a handsome Hindoo temple close be- 



78 • INDIA, CHINA, ANI JAJPAN. 

side the bungalow, and before tlie temple an immense ban- 
yan tree, and under the banyan tree two elephants. I made a 
sketch of the scene, as a memorial of the adventure. 

At last a native entered, and with a profound salaam, 
said : " SaUh hanghy-cart iaiyar hai" (Sir, the banghy-cart 
is ready). 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE BA»CrBY-CART, CONCLUDED INDORE. 

Departure from Seerpore — Another Break-down — A Crippled Cart — PaJisnebr — Indian 
Horses and Drivers— Jungle— The Banyan Tree— The Tamarind— fhe Natives of 
the Jungle— Military Salutations— The Town of Sindwah— Tokens of Decay— The 
Sindwah Jungles — A Dilemma — The Vindhya 'Mountains — The Station of Mhow — 
Arrival at Indore— The Town— The Eajah's Palace— The Eajah and his History — 
His Tastes— Hindoo Temples and their Worshippers— The English Eesidency— 
Cold "Weather. 

It was not without some misgivings that I again took my 
seat in the banghy-cart, and left the place called Seerpore. I 
was now entering the Sindwah jungles, a desolate region, 
swarming with tigers, and so unhealthy that from the end of 
July to the first of January it is impassahle. In case of acci- 
dent there must be detention, and detention in such a case is 
fraught with danger. However, " nothing venture, nothing 
win," is the traveller's true maxim. We thumped and bump- 
ed along in the noonday heat, making about two miles an 
hour, and had proceeded five miles, when I saw the axle 
(which I had been watching) suddenly give w&y again. I 
jumped out in time to avoid the crash, and once more took my 
seat in the jungle, in the shade of a thorny bush. The groom 



80 , INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

mounted the horse and rode away ; the driver unpacked the 
baggage and seated himself opposite to me, and thus we sat 
for three hours. " Patience," after all, is the watchword of 
life. It may seem incredible, hut I was thoroughly patient 
during all this time. 

The groom at last appeared with a new cart — and such a 
cart ! It had been broken so often, that it was a hopeless crip- 
ple. The square box had such a pitch forward, and the step 
was so short, that I could by no possibility keep my seat with- 
out holding fast with both hands. By this time it was dusk, 
and we crept forward gradually, the horse occasionally falling 
down in the ruts, and coming to a stand-still every fifty yards, 
until urged forward by repeated cries of " ai hap I ai thai ! " 
(Oh, my father ! my brother ! ) About ten o'clock we reached 
a village called Palasnehr, only sixteen miles from Seerproe, 
Laving been ten hours on the way. The driver succeeded in 
making me understand that he did not intend to go any fur- 
ther that night. I therefore went to the bungalow, and 
aroused the sleepy khitmudgra, (butler,) " What can I get for 
supper ? I asked. " 5^wc^- wa," (nothing). So I took a carpet- 
bag for a pillow, lay down on the bare bedstead, and slept 
soundly until morning. "Can you get me any thing for 
breakfast ?" I asked again. ^^ Kuch na^ And the banghy- 
cart being ready, I went away hungry from Palasnehr. 

The road was a little better, but as we travelled on a trot 
instead of a walk, the cart lost nothing of its roughness, 
which, indeed, was rather increased. The labor of holding on 
taxed me sorely, and as there was no relaxation, except when 
we stopped to change horses, the muscles of my arms and legs 
at last became so exhausted that I was ready to double up and 



A 



INDIAN HORSES AND DRIVERS 81 

sink together in a heap. My wrists and ankles were swollen for 
several days afterwards, from the effects of that ride. The 
horses and drivers on this part of the road are probably the 
worst in the world. The driver's knowledge is confined to hold- 
ing the reins, and even this he understands very imperfectly. 
Instead of choosing the smoothest part of the road he takes the 
roughest, and if a stone is to be seen, his satisfaction is not 
complete unless the cart runs over it. He frequently swerves 
some distance from the direct track to effect this object. As 
for the horse, he is the master, and if any exertion is neces- 
sary you may possibly flatter but cannot force him into it. 
When first harnessed he never starts of his own accord. One 
groom stands at his head patting and coaxing, while two 
others push at the wheels until they press him forward. He 
then backs, and sometimes sits down on his haunches. More 
force is put to the wheels, until backing becomes a labor to 
him, and then he gees forward as long as the road is level. 
But by and by you come to a slight ascent. He knows 
already where it is, and unless you keep him on a gallop he 
stops at the bottom. The groom jumps down and runs to his 
head. " Tab di " (pat him), says the driver, and while the 
former pats him on the neck, the latter cries out in most en- 
dearing tones : " Oh, my father, my brother, my bulty, my 
brave fellow ! " Thus encouraged he makes a start, and gets 
about half way up the rise, when he stops and leisurely backs 
down again to the bottom. This is repeated three or four 
times, and finally some of the bullock-drivers are called on to 
assist. They lay hold on the wheels, and the horse, instead 
of drawing up the cart, is himself pushed up with it. On one 
occasion, where there was a rise of about one foot in ten for a 
4* 



82 



hundred yards, I was obliged to wait an hour and a half be- 
fore we succeeded in passing. 

Soon after leaving Palasnehr, the road crossed the Sind- 
wah Ghaut, a range of hills about six miles in breadth and 
covered with jungle. Beyond them opened the valley of the 
Nerbudda; the Vindhya Mountains, on the opposite side, 
though fifty miles distant, were dimly visible. Between lay a 
wild waste of jungle, almost uninhabited, a reservoir of 
deadly malaria and a paradise for panthers and tigers. The 
word "jungle," I should explain, is used to express any kind 
of wild growth, from a thicket to a forest, whether highland 
or lowland. The different varieties are distinguished as " close 
jungle, thorn jungle, wet jungle," etc. About Sindwah the 
jungle is close, composed of thick clumps of shrubbery and 
small trees, with here and there a magnificent banyan or pee- 
pul tree towering over it. In the valley of the Nerbudda there 
are many banyans, and some of great size. Few trees present 
grander masses of foliage than this. Instead of a low roof 
of boughs, resting on its pillared trunks, as I had supposed, it 
sends up great limbs to the height of a hundred, or even a 
hundred and fifty feet, and the new trunks are often dropped 
from boughs thirty feet high. They hang like parcels of 
roots from the ends of the boughs, and when broken off and 
prevented from reaching the earth, continue to increase and 
become woody like the trunk. I have seen a tree on which 
huge half-trunks, that had never reached the earth, hung 
from the branches, like the fragments of shattered pillars, 
hanging from the roof of an Egyptian rock-temple. The 
leaves of the banyan are large, glossy and dark-green, and in 



THE TAMARIND TREE. 83 

the winter the foliage is studded with buds of a bright purple 
color. 

The only other large trees that I remarked, were the 
sycamore (peepul) and the tamarind. The acacia and mimosa 
are occasionally met with, and the date and brab palms thrive 
in the valleys. The tamarind frequently rivals the banyan in 
size, while its foliage is wonderfully graceful and delicate. 
The leaflets of its slender pinnate leaves are so small, that the 
Koran could not more forcibly describe the torments of the 
Mahometan Hell, than when it says that the sinners in the 
nether fires shall receive, to cool their thirst, just so much 
water as will lie on one of these leaflets, once in a thousand 
years. Of the smaller trees and shrubs, there is a great va- 
riety, but the tamarind and banyan are the characteristic trees 
of India, as the palm is of Egypt, and the magnolia and cy- 
press of our Southern States. 

From Dhoolia to the Nerbudda, my road was through the 
District of Candeish, which, two or three weeks previous, was 
the subject of general attention, on account of the rising of 
the natives. The disturbance had been quelled, but if I had 
not had such confidence in the potency of English rule, I 
should have felt that I was exposed to some danger. We met 
continually with companies of armed natives — not the mild, 
abject inhabitants of the cultivated districts, but the tall, 
fierce sons of the jungle — men with keen eyes, heavy black 
beards, and a striking expression of courage and defiance in 
their whole bearing. They did not stoop and touch the earth 
in humble salutation, as I passed, but looked me full in the 
face, without a single word of greeting. Some were armed 
with the long Bedouin guns, some with spears, and all wore sa- 



84 . IXDIAj CHLS-A, AST) JAPA3». 

bres. Xkej were nearly all on foot, bnt a few, who seemed 
to be men of anthority, rode on ponies. I shonld jndge they 
were mostly 3Iahometans, from their turbans, and from the 
cast of their features. It is very easy to distinguish between 
the followers of the rival religions, without reference to any 
distinguishing mark of dress, and merely from the expression 
of the face. 

We constantly met long trains of laden builocks and with 
numbers of hackrees. or native ox-carts. Many of the trains 
were accompanied by cTieprasses^ or Government servant, 
(distinguished by a band over the shoulders with an inscribed 
brass plate upon it), and by sepoys. In all my life I never 
received half the number of military salutations, as during 
this journey. Of course I was in the East India Company's 
service, for nobody else travels there; my brown face showed 
that I had been a long time in the country, and my habit of 
never expressing astonishment, when among a strange people, 
was suS&cient, in spite of my ignorance of the language, to 
certify to the fact. Every sepoy drew himself up, faced right 
about, gave his right arm a wide sweep and brought his hand 
to his cap. I made an officer's response, of course, but 
merely gave a slight nod to the salutations of the peasants, 
though they sometimes almost prostrated themselves before 
me. Near Sindwah we passed a small village, where all the 
male inhabitants rushed out of their houses, ranged them- 
selves in a row beside the road, with the elder or chief at 
their head, and successively touched the dust and their fore- 
hea ^. It is not to be inferred that these humiliating tokens 
oi reverence and submission to the English power have been 
forced upon the people. They learned submission long ago ; 



DESERTED DISTEICTS. 85 

it is natural to them. The Indian servant not only calls you 
his father, but his King and his Grod, and when he wants to 
ask you a special favor, comes to you with a bunch of grass in 
his mouth, saying he is your beast. 

Daring the forenoon we passed Sindwah, a miserable vil- 
lage at present, though once a place of some importance, as its 
massive fortress testifies. There is some cultivation near it, 
but the country shows marks of neglect and decay. I was told 
that a large part of Candeish, which is now waste jungle, was 
a flourishing and well-populated region fifty years ago. I 
could at first find no adequate reason for these tokens of 
decay ; but I believe that, in most instances, they are owing 
to a superstition of the natives, which prevents them from in- 
habiting lands belonging to families that have become ex- 
tinct. They believe that the spirits of the former owners lin- 
ger upon the soil, and would visit them with calamity, or 
death, if they persisted in remaining. 

All the rest of the day,. and part of the night, we jolted 
on through the lonely jungles. T was in great hopes of seeing 
a tiger spring across the road, but had no such luck. Al- 
though the ground was baked hard and dry, there was still an 
exhalation from it, as my shadow appeared with a slight halo 
around it, such as one sees on a summer morning, when the 
dew begins to dry. I sufi'ered with a dull headache all day, 
but the rough road might account for this. Towards mid- 
night we reached Akbarpore, on the Nerbudda, having made 
fifty-four miles. I was too sore to wait for supper, but went 
to sleep at once, after ordering breakfast at sunrise, when the 
cart was to be ready again. Sunrise came, and eight o'clock, 
but neither cart nor breakfast. At last the driver appeared, 



86 

and made me a number of remarks for wliicli (in my igno- 
rance of the language) I was none the wiser. " Is the cart 
ready yet ? " I asked. " Yes, it is ready, hut " — and here my 
comprehension ceased. A horrid suspicion flashed through 
my mind : " Is it gone ? " " Yes, it is gone, but " — and he be- 
came unintelligible again. " Is there no cart ? " again I asked. 
" Yes, there's a cart, but " — That dreadful " but " com- 
pletely floored me. I went into the kitchen, took the half- 
cooked breakfast from the fire, and hurriedly ate it, for I had 
lived on biscuits for two days. I then went directly to the 
post-station, but there was no cart there. The people made 
many observations, but all availed nothing, till at last one of 
them rose and beckoned me to follow him. "We went down to 
the Nerbudda, which is a beautiful river, a third of a mile 
wide, crossed the ferry, and behold ! there stood a new cart, 
and there lay a new driver, asleep in the sun ! 

The road was tolerable, I could now sit without holding 
on, and thus the journey became., pleasant again. The valley 
of the Nerbudda is very rich and fertile, the soil resembling 
the black loam of Egypt. We passed many fields of flax, 
covered with blue and white flowers ; wheat, cotton, tobacco 
and poppies, besides small patches of sugar-cane. All seemed 
to thrive equally well. But a small proportion of the soil is 
cultivated, and it is no exaggeration to say, that the valley 
might be made to support a hundredfold its present popula- 
tion. We now approached the picturesque Yindhya Moun- 
tains, one of the summits of which was crowned with a white 
building — the tomb of a Moslem Saint, as well as I could 
understand the driver. The road passes the mountains, at a 
place formerly called Ghara, but now Kintrey's Ghaut, in 



ARRIVAL AT INDORE. 87 

honor of tlie engineer. It is, indeed, admirably planned, 
though somewhat out of repair. The summit, which sepa- 
rates the waters of the two sides of India, overlooks a waste 
and bleak country. Soon after descending the northern side, 
we crossed the head-waters of the Chumbul, the largest 
affluent of the Jumna. At eight o'clock I reached the military 
station of Mhow, within fourteen miles of Indore, and was so 
well satisfied that I allowed the driver to stop for the night. 

Mhow is a handsome station, the officers' bungalows, sur- 
rounded with small gardens, being scattered over an extent 
of two miles. It stands on a dry plain, 2,000 feet above the 
sea, and is considered a very healthy place of residence. 
The highest point is crowned by a large white church, the 
spire of which may be seen for some distance. The place is 
included within the limits of the Madras Presidency. I had 
only a passing glimpse of the town, as I left early next morn- 
ing. A drive of two hours, over a good road and through a 
rolling upland country, devoted to the opium culture, brought 
me to Indore, and x bade adieu to the banghy-cart, hoping I 
might see no more of it. The journey from Bombay occu- 
pied six days and a half, and I accomplished it with less fa- 
tigue, though with more bruises than I expected. 

Indore is the capital of an independent State, and the 
station of an English " Resident" — an office which is equiva- 
lent to that of an Envoy or Ambassador, except that the 
Resident meddles rather more in the affairs of the State to 
which he is accredited. Mr. Hamilton, the Resident at In- 
dore, was absent on a journey, but I was most kindly received 
by Dr. Impey, the Residency Surgeon, to whom I had a let- 
ter. With true Indian hospitality, he tools me at once to his 



88 , INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

house, where both he and his amiable lady did their utmost to 
make my sojourn agreeable. 

Indore is a town of about 60,000 inhabitants, having been 
much increased within a few years by the tyranny of the 
Begum of Oodjein, a holy old city about eighty miles distant, 
many of the inhabitants of which have emigrated to the former 
place. Portions of Indore are well built, reminding me 
somewhat of Konia, and other places in the interior of Asia 
Minor. The houses are generally of wood, two stories high^ 
the upper story projecting and resting on pillars, so as to form 
a verandah below. The pillars and the heavy cornice above 
them are of dark wood, and very elaborately carved. In the 
centre of the town is the Kajah's palace, fronting a small 
square. It is a quadrangle of about four hundred feet to a 
side, the portion over the main gateway rising to the height 
of eighty or ninety feet, and visible for many miles around. 
The architecture is Saracenic, though not of a pure style. 
The gateway, however, and the balconies over it, are very ele- 
gant, and the main court, surrounded by lOfty pillars of dark 
wood, connected by ornate horseshoe arches, has a fine efi"ect. 
The outer walls are covered with pictures of elephants, 
horses, tigers, Englishmen and natives, drawn and colored 
with the most complete disregard of nature. 

On our way to the town one evening, we met the Rajah 
and his suite, just setting out on an excursion into the coun- 
try. He was attended by a large retinue of persons, soldiers 
dressed in the European style, officials in gaudy dresses hold- 
ing spears and flags, and all the paraphernalia of a petty 
prince. He is very fond of display, but I must confess that 
the whole show was rather picturesque than imposing. I had 



THE RAJAH OF INDORE. 89 

a good view of the Rajah, who was a young man of about 
twenty, tall and stout for his age, and with a good-humored 
though not remarkably intelligent face. He wore a crimson 
robe, and a rich silken turban, studded with jewels. His 
story is quite romantic. Twelve years ago he was a poor 
shepherd boy in the neighborhood of Mhow. The former 
Rajah, Hurry Rao Holkar, having died childless, and without 
any near relatives, the State might have readily fallen into 
the possession of the East India Company. Instead of tak- 
ing it, however, search was made for a successor, and the poor 
shepherd boy was found to belong to a remote branch of the 
family. He was thereupon invested with the Rajahship, and 
Mr. Hamilton, the Resident, was appointed Regent during 
his minority. 

Notwithstanding he was educated under English auspices, 
the Rajah did not seem to have acquired any English ideas, 
except a taste for. horses and hunting. The only public 
works of his which were pointed out to me, were a small hos- 
pital and school, and a bridge across the river, or rather 
ravine, on which Indore is built. The latter was a very 
substantial structure, of hewn stone, and cost upwards of 
$100,000. The finest thing I saw in the place was a well, built 
by one of the former Rajahs. It was a large square shaft, about 
forty feet deep, with a broad flight of steps leading down to 
the water, and cool chambers and balconies of hewn stone, for 
recreation during the hot weather. 

In riding through and around the town, I was struck with 
the number of small Hindoo temples. The principal temple ia 
adjacent to the Rajah's palace ; but as Europeans are not al- 
lowed to enter, I saw only the outside. In the suburbs, hoW' 



/ 

90 • INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

ever, there are many sanctuaries erected to the different gods^ 
the most of them being open canopies or domes, resting on pil- 
lars, and none above twenty feet in height. The idols are gen- 
erally smeared with red paint, a token that they have recently 
been worshipped. There were multitudes of beggars, some of 
whom asked for alms in the name of Vishnu, and others in 
the name of Allah, the latter being Mussulmen. In one 
street we passed a house where the piercing shrieks of a fife 
and the dreadful clatter of a drum announced a marriage fes- 
tival, and not far off, two women, seated in front of a door, 
howled incessant lamentation for a corpse within: Destruc- 
tion and Reproduction, both the attributes of the god Shiva, 
in whose name a beggar at that very instant demanded char- 
ity. 

There is a picturesque orchard of mango and date trees 
on the eastern side of the town, but the soil is too thin on 
the uplands around it to support much vegetation. The gar- 
den of the Resident is artificially made. His residence, 
which I visited, is a stately stone mansion, with large and 
lofty rooms, furnished in superb style. He maintains a great 
state, which he may well do on a salary of £4,000 a year, in 
a country where labor and the ordinary necessaries of life 
cost next to nothing. The wages of a field-laborer here are 
two annas (six cents) a day, he finding his own food. Women 
receive one and a half annas, and boys one anna daily. 
House servants are better paid, as they are obliged to wear 
rather more garments, but, as each has his particular busi- 
ness, eight or ten are required to do the work of a small 
family. 

I found the weather unpleasantly cold, coming from the 



COLD WEATHER. 91 

latitude of Bombay. During the nights the temperature wag 
so low that thin cakes of ice frequently formed on shallow 
pools. From the supplies thus collected, the English resi- 
dents are furnished with ice during a part of the hot season. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE MAI L-C A R T. 

The Mail-Cart— Setting out from Indore— Night Travel— Sttpidity cf the Natives— 
Mussulmen— Nearly an Accident— Scenery of the Eoad— A Polite Englishman- 
Miseries of the Journey— A Tiger Party— Budjrungurh— Goonah— A Free Use of 
Hospitality— The Thugs and Eobbers— Second Halt— Miss Burroughs- Going On— 
The Plain of Hindostan — Approach to Agra — A Landmark. 

At sunset on the 1 Itk of January, I took leave of my hos- 
pitable hosts at Indore, and again ventured upon unknown 
seas. I had taken passage for Agra in the mail-cart, a ve- 
hicle precisely resembling the banghy cart, but with the ad- 
vantage of greater speed. The distance to be travelled was 
380 miles, and the fare 50 rupees, which is considered very 
cheap in India, but would be very dear in any other country. 
The average rate of speed is from eight to nine miles an hour, 
so that the mail reaches Agra in a little more than two days 
from Indore; but as few mortal frames would be equal to 
such work, travellers are allowed to make the journey in sev- 
eral stages, by stopping at any of the dawk bungalows on 
the road and waiting for the next day's mail. 

The mail cart is propelled by two horses, one of which is 
an outrigger. This facilitates the ascent of slight elevations 



NIGHT TRAVEL, 93 

in the road, except when the two animals choose to move in 
dififerent directions, which is by no means a rare occurrence. 
However, I found that I could retain my position ou the box 
without holding fast with both hands, and this was a great 
improvement on the banghy cart. We set off at a full gallop, 
over a hard, well beaten road, and through a rolling, open 
country. The twilight died away and the young moon went 
down before we reached Dewas, twenty-four miles from In- 
dore, and thenceforth we galloped by starlight. Ever the 
same rolling upland, thinly inhabited and scantily cultivated ; 
broad belts of jungle, more dreary and stunted than in the 
regions south of the Nerbudda, and crossed by frequent 
abrupt nullas. Occasionally we passed low ranges of stony 
hills, where the rate of our speed caused a most intolerable 
jolting. The native villages, slumbering under the broad 
arms of peepul and banyan trees, were picturesque enough in 
the gloom, which hid their dirt and deformity, while the gro- 
tesque cones of their temples were the only objects that 
showed with any distinctness.'' The silent driver always blew 
a discordant blast on his horn while passing thfCugh these 
villages, and on approaching the post-stations, which are from 
five to seven miles apart. We always found a few sleepy 
grooms in waiting with the fresh horses, which were slowly 
harnessed to our cart, and after going through their exercise 
of backing and rearing, sprang forward with a galvanic start, 
and an impetus which did not cease until we drew up at the 
next post. 

Thus the night wore away. My only amusement was in 
watching the Great Bear, as he slowly wheeled around the 
pole-star, for in my previous watches I had learned to 



94 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

measure the hours of the night by his progress. The driver 
now and then made a remark, very profound, no doubt, if I 
had understood it. I always assented, to avoid discussion, 
which would have been embarrassing, and if he addressed 
a question to me, invariably answered: "I don't know." 
There is no use in telling these people that you don't under- 
stand their language, for they jabber away to you just the 
same as ever. It is much better to make a short and despotic 
use of the few words you know, and restrict the conversation 
to those remarks which are indispensable. As we proceeded 
northward, I noticed that Arabic words were frequently used. 
The form of salutation was the usual " salaam aleikoom" of 
the East, and the driver exclaimed, each time that he mounted 
the cart: "in the name of the most merciful God." In ad- 
dition to this, he frequently touched the rim of the wheel and 
his forehead alternately several times with his fore-fiDger — pro- 
bably as a charm to prevent accidents, and I devoutly hoped 
it might be efl&cacious, for we had no other safeguard. Had 
the axle snapped, as in the case of the banghy-cart, I should 
not have gotten off so easily. 

When morning came, there was so little change in the 
features of the landscape that I could have believed myself 
still in sight of Indore, and yet we had made more than a 
hundred miles during the night. I was quite benumbed 
from the coldness of the air, and began to feel the effects of 
the jolts I had undergone. Soon after sunrise the driver dis- 
covered that one of the linch-pins was broken off, so that the 
wheel kept its place from mere force of habit. He asked me 
•whether he should proceed, but as I knew he only put the 
question for form's F^ake, since the mail could not be detained, 



SCENERY OF THE ROAD. 95 

I told him to drive on, which he did, " in the name of the 
most merciful God." Our speed, after this, was more furious 
than before, and a mad gallop of six miles, during which I 
constantly kept myself braced in an attitude to spring out, 
brought us to the next post, where we were fortunate enough 
to find a substitute for the pin. During the day we passed 
two mail-carts, lying by the road-side, with their axles broken. 

Nothing could exceed the monotony of the scenery, which 
while the dry season lasts, wears a bleak and desolate aspect. 
During the rains, when the soil is hidden under a deluge of 
herbage, and the ragged shrubbery of the jungles starts into 
new bloom and foliage, it must present a very difi"erent 
appearance. Except in the sheltered hollows, where the 
palm still flourished, there was no token of a tropical climate. 
I found more interest in observing the crowds of natives whom 
we met on the road. In addition to the different Indian races, 
who had now become tolerably familiar to me, there were oc- 
casionally men of taller stature, lighter complexion, and a 
bold, unsubmissive expression of face, whom I took to be 
Sikhs or Affghans. 

About noon we reached a place called Bursud, where there 
was a traveller's bungalow, occupied by an English family. A 
lady was standing in the verandah, and I took off my hat to her 
as we passed. Politeness is its own reward, for no sooner had 
we stopped to change horses, than the lady's husband made his 
appearance, and very politely asked me to take some refresh- 
ments. The invitation was timely, for the appetite of a hun- 
gry man is not satisfied with biscuits (which was all my store), 
but I had determined to reach Goonah, half-way to Agra, be- 
fore resting, and could not detain the mail. I only men- 



96 INDIA, CHINA, 

tion tL^ circumstance as another instance of the hospitality 
of the English in India. 

By this time I was in that feverish and excitable condition 
which shows that one's powers of endurance are beginning to 
give way. I was bruised and shaken from head to foot, 
racked with aches and pains, and above all exquisitely tor- 
tured by a small iron rod which ran around the box whereon 
we sat, to prevent our being thrown into the road. The mark 
of that rod was imprinted on my flesh for days afterwards. 
During the afternoon we came into a hilly country where 
the road was a little better, and I experienced some relief. 
The hills were covered with jungle, but there was cultivation 
in the valleys between, especially about the little town of Ka- 
googurh, which is the residence of a Rajah. It is a walled 
town of rectangular form, with round towers at the corners, 
but the walls have tumbled down in various places, making 
unsightly breaches and disclosing the poverty of the dwellings 
within. 

A short distance further we overtook a large concourse of 
natives, all of whom carried long bamboo poles in their hands 
Among them were several cheprassees, or Grovernment ser- 
vants, and two or three sepoys. They all drew up in a line 
on each side of the road, making the most profound salaams 
as I passed between their ranks. I was at a loss to understand 
this display until, at the end of the concourse, I came upon a 
magnificent elephant (the largest I ever saw), when I decided 
that these must be the attendants of the Rajah of Ragoo- 
gurh. The whole thing was explained, however, by the ap- 
pearance of two English gentlemen and some attendants car- 
rying a wild boar. They had been out tiger hunting, and the 



A TIGER-HUNTER BUDJRUNGURGH. 97 

crowd of natives with bamboos were the " beaters," who are 
employed in India, instead of dogs, to sweep the jungles and 
start the beasts from their coverts. One of the gentlemen, 
I afterwards learned, was one of the most noted tiger siaj^ers 
in the country, and had just recovered from being dreadfully 
mangled by a panther, an accident which had lamed him for 
life. He had suffered fever, lockjaw, paralysis and partial 
mortification, yet outlived them all, to the amazement of 
every body and the dismay of the tigers. 

At the mouth of a wide bay formed by the hills is the 
town of Budjruugurh, which, according to an itinerary of the 
road, is the residence of one of Scindiah's pundits ; so that, 
if I had not the satisfaction of beholding a learned Pundit, I 
at least saw his habitation. The town is perched on a tongue 
of land which shoots out from the hills, dropping into a preci- 
pice of naked red rock on three sides. With its tottering 
walls, and the tall, parabolic domes of a cluster of temples 
on the plain below, it made a striking picture in passing. 
There was now but one more stage to Goonah, and after pass- 
ing the shoulder of the hill beyond Budjrungurh, I saw in 
the distance the goal for which I had been so ardently long- 
ing. Its thatched houses, half hidden in groves of tamarind 
and date-palm, beckoned to me across a broad plain of wheat 
and po23pies, which basked in the warm light of the descend- 
ing sun. In half an hour I dismounted in the bazaar^^ having 
travelled 185 miles in less than twenty- four hours. 

The traveller's bungalow was occupied by an invalided 
officer, who had charge of keeping the post-stations in order. 
There was a spare room, which I at once appropriated, and 
throwing myself upon the bare charpoy bedstead, fell asleep. 



98 • INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

• 

I was aroused by a native, whom I took to be tlie kliitmudgar 
of the bungalow, and who delivered himself of several unin- 
telligible sentences. I thereupon went to the officer's room, 
and with an apology for my intrusion, begged him to interpret 
for me. " Why," said the captain, "he says you have only to 
order what you like for dinner — beef-steak, mutton chops, 
sherry, brandy or beer." Here is truly a model bungalow, 
I thought. " Will you tell him," I asked, " to get me the 
best dinner he can, and a bottle of beer, as soon as possible?" 
" The dinner is ready," said the servant ; which means that 
you will get it in three hours, and in just that time it was 
brought to me. But the next day I discovered, accidentally, 
that the man I had taken for the khitmudgar was the cap- 
tain's own servant, and that the worthy officer had simply trans- 
lated his own hospitable message to me ! 

An English Lieutenant, who was encamped in the village 
with a company of sepoys, came up and spent the evening 
with me. He was born in India, and I was the second Ame- 
rican he had ever seen. He invited me strongly to stop the 
next evening at Meeana, where he proposed to encamp, and 
promised to prepare refreshments for me. He moved away 
early in the morning, and as I could not stop at Meeana, I saw 
him no more. The mail-cart came along the next day about 
two p. M., and as I had spent all the morning in sieep, I felt 
ready to undertake the latter half of the journey. When I 
called the true khitmudgar, in order to pay him for my meals, 
he declared that I owed him nothing, for every thing had 
been sent to me by the " captain-sahib." I then went to the 
latter, explained my mistake and apologized for my appar- 
ent rudeness, f< r any other course was out of the queition. 



THE THUGS. 99 

" Pshaw ! " said the Captain, bluntly : " don't say a word. As 
long as I live in tlie bungalow, travellers are of course uiy 
guests." 

My host, moreover, warned me against a frightful nulla, ox 
gully, in which the mail-cart was upset a few days before, and the 
driver's thigh broken. Night came on before we reached the 
locality, but though we crossed a number of deep nullas, I 
could not discover the scene of the accident. Robbers are 
plentiful in this part of the country, and even the mail-cart 
had just been plundered. All the region between Indore 
and Agra, was once noted as being the principal haunt 
of the Thugs, or Stranglers. The system is now almost if 
not wholly extinct ; at least, the Thugs no longer dare to 
practise their horrid trade upon Europeans. This is owing to 
the vigorous measures adopted by the Government, which 
has lately taken up the task of suppressing infanticide, and 
will, it is to be hoped, be equally successful. 

Not to tire the reader with too many details of my pro- 
gress, I will only state that about ten o'clock that evening I 
reached a village called Tongra, on the banks of a small lake, 
and was there obliged to halt another day, on account of the 
seat thence to Agra having been previously engaged by au 
English officer. The rest was not unwelcome, and the silent and 
attentive khitmudgar was a capital purveyor. On leaving, 
I indorsed the opinion of Miss Burroughs, who wrote in the 
traveller's book that this was the only bungalow worthy of 
the name. I was pleased to see that all travellers since her 
time had done the same, for several pages were thickly stud- 
ded with : •' Ditto to Miss Burroughs." 

At the same hour on the following evening the mail-cart 



100 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

came, and away we galloped over rolling uplands, tliroiigh wastes 
of jungle, and across numberless nullas. Thus the chill, uncom- 
fortable night passed away. The rising sun showed a barren 
valley, shut in by brown hills, covered with long grass and 
sand. Climbing out of this valley upon a bleak eminence, I 
saw like a boundless sea before me, the great Plain of Hin- 
dostan — that vast, alluvial level, which extends without a 
break from Calcutta to the Indus. "We now entered on a 
richer and more cheerful region. The v'^^ages were embow- 
ered in tamarind and sycamore trees, and with the exception 
of occasional belts of sand, the plain was well cultivated. 
We were ferried across the Chumbul, the principal affluent of 
the Jumna — a shallow river, nearly half mile in breadth, and 
flowing at the bottom of a deep bed which it has worn for it- 
self in the sandy soil. 

Passing Dholpore, the residence of a Rajah, and Jajow, a 
picturesque old place, with a handsome mosque and serai, we 
rapidly approached Agra. I looked forward to the distant 
belt of trees which hid the city, with the sensation of a man, 
who, after drifting for days on a dangerous sea, approaches a 
safe harbor. At last, a snow-white dome stood suddenly on 
the horizon, and I hailed the renowned Taj Mahal, for I knew 
it could be none other. There was Agra, the City of Akbar, 
and I — to borrow the words of Eothen — I had lived to see, 
and I saw it. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE CITY OF AKBAR. 

Akbarabad— The Modern City— The English Cantonments— IJev. Mr. "Warren— The 
Fort of Agra— The Jumma Musjeed— Entering the Fort— Judgment-Seat of the 
Emperor— The Gates of Somnauth— Akbar's Palace— Splendor of its Decorations— 
The Palace of Glass— A Cracked Throne— The Pearl Mosque— Tomb of Akbar, at 
Secundra — An Indian Landscape — Saracenic Art — Mission Printing-Office — The 
American Missions — The Agra Jail — Dr, Walker's System of Education — Arithme- 
tic in Chorus— Effect of the System. 

Agra is still called by the natives Akbarabad — the City 
of Akbar — from the renowned Emperor to whom it owes its 
origin. All its former splendor grew up under his reign, 
and all its architectural remains, except the Taj Mahal, date 
from his time. In this respect it differs from Delhi, which, 
although still called by the Mohammedans Shahjehanabad, 
(from Shah Jehan, the grandson of Akbar), is more especially 
the capital of the Mogul Emperors, and bears the memo- 
rials of many successive reigns. Yet I doubt whether their 
combined feebler lights can equal the sunlike lustre of Ak- 
bar's name, and whether their city, with all its stores of his- 
toric associations, can so interest and attract the traveller a*" 
this, the capital of the greatest man who ever ruled in India. 



102 INDIA, CniNA, AND JAPAN. 

The modern city is not even the shadow of the ancient 
capital. That has wholly passed away, except the Fort — a city 
in itself — and some ruined palaces on the hank of the Jumna. 
But for nearly two miles in every direction, the mounds, re- 
mains of walls and other indications of habitations are abun- 
dant. Much more was to be seen a few years ago than at 
present, but as the old bricks were constantly taken to con- 
struct new buildings, these vestiges gradually disappeared. 
The population, which once numbered more than half a mil- 
lion, has dwindled to about 70,000, and the native city hns 
little more to interest the traveller than any ordinary Indian 
town — Indore, for instance. There is one principal street, 
passing through its whole length to the gates of the Fort, and 
in this are situated the residences of the wealthier inhabitants, 
which are generally of brick or red sandstone. The veran- 
dahs and hanging balconies, with their exquisite Saracenic 
arches, carved ornaments and stone lattice-work, remind one 
of Cairo. The street is also a sort of bazaar, and during the 
day presents a very busy and animated scene. It is -so narrow 
that two vehicles can with difficulty pass, while all the other 
streets of the city are only attainable by pedestrians. On 
the side facing the Jumna there are few striking buildings, 
except the Custom-House, once the palace of a rich native. 
Stone ghauts, here and there, lead down to the holy stream, 
which at the time of my visit was so much diminished by the 
dry season that it did not occupy more than one-third of its 
bed. 

South of the city are the cantonments, divided into the 
civil and military lines, and occupying a space of five miles ia 
length by nearly two in breadth. The bungalows of the Eng- 



THE CANTONMENTS — MR. WARREN. 103 

lish residents are neat, cottage-like buildings of one story, 
witli steep, thatched roofs. Each stands in its own "com- 
pound," or enclosure, so that the cantonments present a truly 
suburban aspect. Broad roads, as smooth and hard as a floor, 
run in all directions, and offer admirable drives to the inhabi- 
tants, whose buggies may be seen at all hours of the day, 
dashing back and forth, A spacious square, planted with 
young trees, is called the Park, and beyond this rises the lofty 
spire of the English Church. The various public buildings 
— the Bank, the Post-office, the Government House, and 
others, are distinguished from the private residences by their 
size, but have little pretension to architectural beauty. 

On entering Agra I was taken to the traveller's bungalow, 
which stands on a waste plat of ground, adjoining the Park. 
The succeeding day was so cold, dull and rainy, that I re- 
mained indoors, and rested my shattered frame. Mr. Thom- 
asson, the Grovernor of the north-western provinces, to whom 
I had letters, was absent at Benares, but I was most hos- 
pitably received by Bev. Mr. Warren, an American Mission- 
ary, under whose roof I sojourned during my stay. Under 
bis guidance, and that of Mr. Hutton, the Editor of The 
Agra 3fessengcr, I visited all the objects of interest in the 
city and vicinity. 

The Fort, which contains the Palace of Akbar, and the 
celebrated Motee Musjeed or Pearl Mosque, is one of the 
grandest structures of the kind in India. It is about a mile 
and a half in circuit, and its stately, embrasured battlements 
of red sandstone are seventy feet in height. Nothing can be 
more imposing than the view of this immense mass of masonry, 
rising high above the buildings of the modern city, and almost 



104 , INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

overtopping the domes of the Jumma Musjeed (Sunday 
mosque), which stands without its gates. Its appearance, nev- 
ertheless, is very deceptive with regard to its strength, for the 
walls, impregnable as they look, are mere shells, and would 
not stand a single day's cannonading. 

Before entering the Fort, I visited the Jumma Musjeed. 
The front of the mosque faces the principal gate, a broad, en- 
closed square, which is now used as a market-place, interven- 
ing between. The mosque stands on a lofty platform, which 
is reached by a spacious flight of steps. In India all places 
of worship, except the inner shrines — the holy of holies — 
are open to the conquerors, who walk in, booted and spurred, 
where the Hindoo and Moslem put their shoes from off their 
feet. I should willingly have complied with this form, as I 
did in other Moslem countries, but was told that it was now 
never expected of a European, and would be in fact a depreci- 
ation of his dignity. The Jumma Musjeed is a melancholy 
picture of ruin. The walls which enclose the fore-court are 
tumbling down, and the inlaid inscriptions which surround the 
facade are falling out, piece by piece. The body of the mosque 
is divided into a central and two smaller side-halls, each of 
which opens upon the court-yard by a lofty, arched portal, and 
is surmounted by a swelling oriental dome, of corresponding 
proportions. India being east of Mecca, the mosque of 
course occupies the western side of the court, and at each of 
the adjacent corners rises a lofty and graceful minaret. This 
is the plan on which all Indir.n mosques are built, and they vary 
in architectural beauty according as the portals, the domes and 
minarets, approach a true artistic proportion. 

Crossing by a drawbridge over the deep moat which sur- 



THE JUDGMENT-SEAT OF AKBAR. 105 

rounds tlie Fort, we passed througli a massive gateway and 
up a paved ascent to the inner entrance, which shows consid- 
erable taste. It consists of two octagonal towers of red sand- 
stone, inlaid with ornamental designs in white marble. The 
passage between them is covered by two domes, which seem 
to rise from accretions of prismatic stalactites, as in the 
domes of the Moorish Alhambra. This elegant portal, how- 
ever, instead of opening upon the courts of palaces, ushers 
you into a waste of barren mounds, covered with withered grass. 
But over the blank red walls in front, you see three marble 
domes, glittering in the sunshine like new-fallen snow, and 
still further, the golden pinnacles of Akbar's palace, and these 
objects hint that your dream of the magnificence of the Great 
Mogul will not be entirely dispelled. 

But first, let us visit the modern Arsenal, which was once 
the diwarij or Judgment-seat of Akbar. It was formerly an 
open portico, or loggia, the roof resting on three rows of pil- 
lars, which were connected by Saracenic arches ; but at present, 
the outer row of arches being walled up, it forms a spacious 
hall, divided into three aisles. All the weapons of modern 
warfare, with here and there a crooked scimetar or battle-axe, 
of ancient tinies, are ranged round the pillars and between the 
arches in those symmetrical groupings peculiar to instruments 
of death. At the intersections of the central arches hang tri- 
colored banners of red, blue and yellow, with the names of the 
British victories in India inscribed upon them in English and 
Sanscrit. The great curiosity, howaver, is the celebrated 
gate of Somnauth, wliich was carried off by that stern icono- 
clast. Sultan Mahmoud of Ghuznee. Somnauth was a holy 
Brahminical city on the coast of Goojerat, and noted at that 
5* 



106 

time for llie wealth and magnificence of its temples. It is re- 
lated of Mahmoud, that, after having taken the city and com- 
menced demolishing the idols, the' Brahmins offered him im- 
mense sums if he would spare the deity of their great tem- 
ple. Mahmoud was only tempted for an instant. " Truth," 
he said, " is better than gold," and raising his iron mace, he 
smote the idol, which, as it split, poured from its hollow body 
a store of gold and jewels far exceeding what the Brahmins 
had offered him. This incident has afforded subject for poetry 
to E-Lickert, the German poet, and our own Lowell. 

The gates were taken by Mahmoud to his capital of Ghuz- 
nee, where they remained until the recent invasion of Aff- 
ghanistan by the English, when that fantastic individual, 
Lord Ellenborough, bore them off to Agra. They are about 
twelve feet high, elaborately carved and inlaid, and said to be 
composed entirely of sandal-wood. On one of the panels, 
three metal bosses are nailed. According to tradition, they 
vere taken from Mahmoud's shield. In the centre of the 
kail is the throne whence Akbar pronounced judgment, after 
the cases had been discussed in his presence. It is a pavilion 
of white marble, inlaid with jasper and cornelian, in the form 
[)f flowers, ornamental scrolls and sentences from the Koran. 
Below it is an immense slab of white marble, on which he 
vas accustomed to seat himself. 

Beyond the arsenal, and in that part of the Fort over- 
ooking the Jumna, is the n.onarch's palace, still in a toler- 
ible state of preservation. Without a ground-plan it would 
be (. .Jicult to describe in detail its many courts, its separate 
masses of buildings and its detached pavilions — which com- 
bine to :rm a labyrinth, so full of dazzling architectural ef- 



AKBAR's palace ITS SPLENDOR. 107 

fects, that it is almost impossible to keep the clue. On en- 
tering the outer courts, I was at once reminded of the Alham- 
bra. Here were the same elegant Moorish arches, with their 
tapering bases of open filigree work resting on slender double 
shafts — a style so light, airy and beautiful, that it seems fit 
only for a palace of fairies. Akbar's palace is far more com- 
plete than the Alhambra. No part has been utterly de- 
stroyed, and the marks of injury by Time and battle, are com- 
paratively slight. Here a cannon-ball has burst its way 
through the marble screen of the Sultana's pavilion ; there an 
inlaid blossom of cornelian, with leaves of blood-stone, has 
been wantonly dug out of its marble bed ; the fountains are 
dry, the polished tank in the " Bath of Mirrors" is empty, 
the halls are untenanted — but this is all. No chamber, no 
window or staircase is wanting, and we are able to re-people 
the palace with the household of the great Emperor, and to 
trace out the daily routine of his duties and pleasures. 

The substructions of the palace are of red sandstone, but 
nearly the whole of its corridors, chambers and pavilions are 
of white marble, wrought with the most exquisite elaboration 
of ornament. The pavilions overhanging the river are inlaid, 
within and without, in the rich style of Florentine mosaic. 
They are precious caskets of marble, glittering all over with 
jasper, agate, cornelian, blood-stone and lapis-lazuli, and 
topped with golden domes. Balustrades of marble, wrought in 
open patterns of such rich design that they resemble fringes 
of lace when seen from below, extend along the edge of the 
battlements. The Jumna washes the walls, seventy feet be- 
low, and from the balconies attached to the zenana^ or wo- 
men's apartments, there are beautiful views of the gardens and 



108 _ INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

palm-groves on tlie opposite bank, and tliat wonder of India, 
the Taj, sliining like a palace of ivory and crystal, about a 
mile down tbe stream. 

' The most curious part of the palace is the Sheesh Mahal 
(Palace of Glass,) which is an oriental bath, the chambers and 
passages whereof are adorned with thousands of small mir- 
rors, disposed in the most intricate designs. The water falls 
in a broad sheet into the marble pool, over brilliant lamps, 
and the fountains are so constructed as to be lighted from 
within. Mimic cascades tumble from the walls, over slabs of 
veined marble, into basins so curiously carved that the motion 
of the water produces the appearance offish. This bath must 
once have realized all the fabled splendors of Arabian story. 
The chambers of the Sultanas and the open courts connecting 
them are filled with fountains. Though the building is an in- 
crustation of gold, marble, and precious stones, water is still 
its most beautiful ornament. Within these fairy precincts 
lie the gardens, still overrun with roses and jasmine vines, in the 
midst of which fountains are playing. There is also a court, 
paved with squares of black and white marble, so as to form 
a pachisi board. This is a game resembling backgammon, but, 
instead of ivory pieces, it was played on this colossal board 
by Akbar and his wives, or eunuchs, with girls, who trotted 
from square to square, as the moves were made. 

On an open terrace in front of the Diwan e'Khaz^ where 

Akbar sat on great occasions, is his throne, a slab of black 

marble, about six feet square. It is cracked entirely through, 

I?* which my old guide accounted for by saying that when the 

?^ Mahrattas took Agra, the Rajah of Bhurtpore seated himself 

on the throne, whereupon it not only cracked from side to 



THE PEARL MOSQUE. 109 

Bide, but blood gushed out of its top, in two places. When 
Lord Ellenborough was Goveruer-General of India, he also 
sat upon it, causing it to shed blood a second time. There are 
two red stains on its surface, which sufficiently attest these 
miracles to all good Mussulmen. Opposite the throne is a 
smaller one of white marble, where, if tradition may be re- 
lied on, the Emperor's fool, or jester, took his place and bur- 
lesqued his master. 

Before leaving the Fort, I visited the Motee Musjeed, or 
Pearl Mosque, as it is poetically and justly termed. It is, in 
truth, the pearl of all mosques, of small dimensions, but abso- 
lutely perfect in style and proportions. It is lifted on a 
lofty sandstone platform, and from without nothing can be 
seen but its three domes of white marble with their gilded 
spires. In all distant views of the Fort these domes are seen, 
like silvery bubbles which have rested a moment on its walls, 
and which the next breeze will sweep away. Ascending a 
long flight of steps, a heavy door was opened for me, and I 
stood in the court-yard of the mosque. Here, nothing was 
to be seen but the quadrangle of white marble, with the mosque 
on its western side, and the pure blue of the sky overhead. 
The three domes crown a deep corridor, open toward the 
court, and divided into three aisles by a triple row of the 
most exquisitely proportioned Saracenic arches. The Motee 
Musjeed can be compared to no other edifice that I have ever seen. 
To my eye it is a perfect type of its class. While its architec- 
ture is the purest Saracenic, which some suppose cannot ex- 
ist without ornament, it shows the severe simplicity of Doric 
art. It has, in fact, nothing which can properly be termed 
ornament. It is a sanctuary so pure and stainless, revealing 



110 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

SO exalted a spirit of worship that I felt humbled, as a Chris- 
tian, to think that our nobler religion has so rarely inspired its 
architects to surpass this temple to God and Mohammed. 

After visiting the palace, Mr. Warren accompanied me to 
the tomb of Akbar, at Secundra, about six miles from Agra. 
Secundra takes its name from Alexander, whose invasion of 
India has thus been commemorated by the Moguls. The 
great Macedonian, however, did not penetrate so far as this, 
his battle with Porus having been fought on the Jhelum, or 
Hydaspes, beyond Lahore. The road to Secundra is studded 
with tombs, and there are many remains of palaces on the 
bank of the Jumna. The tomb of Akbar stands in the midst 
of a large square garden, which has a lofty gateway of red 
sandstone in the centre of each of its sides. From these four 
gateways, which are upward of seventy feet high, four grand 
causeways of hewn stone converge to the central platform, on 
which the mausoleum stands. The intermediate spaces are 
filled with or$Sge, mango, banana, palm and peepul trees. In 
the centre of the causeways are immense tanks and fountains. 
The platform of solid stone which terminates these magnifi- 
cent approaches is about four hundred feet square. The mau- 
soleum, which is square, measures more than three hundred 
feet on a side, and rises in five terraces, in a pyramidal form, 
to the height of one hundred feet. Around each of the ter- 
races runs an arched gallery, surmounted by a row of cupolas, 
resting on small pillars. The material of the edifice is red 
sandstone, except the upper story, which is of white marble. 

A long, descending passage leads from the main entrance 
to a vaulted hall in the centre of the structure. Light is ad- 
mitted through a few small openings in the dome, barely suf- 



THE TOMB OF AKBAR. Ill 

ficient to show you a plain tomb, in tlie form of a sarcopha- 
gus, with a wreath of fresh roses lying upon it. Beneath it 
is the dust of Akbar, one of the greatest men who ever 
wielded a sceptre — the fourth descendant in a direct line from 
Tamerlane, the grandson of Baber, the Conqueror, and the 
grandfather of Shah Jehan, in him culminated the wisdom, 
the power and the glory of that illustrious line. I doubt if 
the annals of any family that ever reigned can furnish six suc- 
cessive monarchs comparable, in the greatness of their endow- 
ments and the splendor of their rule, to Baber, Humayoon, Ak- 
bar, Jehan Ghir, Shah Jehan and Aurung-Zebe. 

On the summit of the mausoleum, which is open to the 
sky, and surrounded by screens of marble, wrought into pat- 
terns of marvellous richness and variety, stands a second 
tomb, under a pavilion of marble, covered with a gilded 
dome. This is exquisitely sculptured, containing the ninety- 
nine names of God, in raised Arabic characters, infolded in 
elaborate scroll-work. At each corner of the upper terrace 
are two marble turrets, the domes of which are covered with 
gilded and emblazoned tiles. The screens of marble filigree 
around the sides are arranged in j)anels, no two of which pre- 
sent the same design. There are small openings, at intervals, 
through which I looked out on the level country watered by 
the Jumna — yellow sandy tracts near the river, but receding 
into green wheat-fields and dark mango-groves. Agra was al- 
most hidden from sight by the trees, but above them rose the 
spires of two Christian churches, the red battlements of the 
Fort, and farther off the dome of the Taj, a silvery disc, like 
the gibbous moon, just hanging on the horizon. A warmth 
and sunny silence, like that of Egypt, hung over the land- 



112 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

scape. • Wliat I had seen of the splendor of the Moguls, and 
what I then saw, overpowered me like a magnificent dream. 

We in America hear so little of these things, and even 
the accounts we get from English travellers are generally so 
confused and unsatisfactory, that the reader must pardon me, 
if in attempting the description, I lose myself in details. I 
thought the Alcazar of Seville and the Alhambra of Granada 
had already presented me with the purest types of Saracenic 
architecture, but I was mistaken. I found, in India, concep- 
tions of Art far nobler and embodiments far more successful. 
There is a Saracenic, as distinctly as there is a Greek and 
Gothic school of Art — not the inferior, but the equal of these. 

At Secundra, the tomb of Akbar's Christian wife, the 
Beo;um Mariam, who is believed to have been a Portu- 
guese woman — ^has been taken by the Church Mission, which 
has converted it into a printing establishment. It is the lar- 
gest office of the kind in India, giving emplo}Tnent to about 
three hundred men, most of whom are natives. Printing is 
carried on in English, Hindee, Urdoo, Sanscrit and Persian. 
There is a type foundry connected with it, in whch the casting 
is done entirely by natives. The wages paid in these establish- 
ments vary from $1 50 to $1 per month. Many of the labor- 
ers are Christians, there being a native Christian community 
of about five hundred persons attached to the Secundra Mis- 
sion. Most of these, however, are persons picked up during 
the great famine of 1837, when thousands of children, having 
been deserted by their parents, were taken by the Mission- 
aries and educated in the Christian faith. During that year 
the Missions prospered exceedingly. The Pr.esbyterian Mis- 
sion, at the head of which is Mr. "Warren, had just est xblished 



THE AGRA JAIL. 113 

seminaries of education for both sexes, where instruction was 
furnished at a rate which allowed the poorest of the European 
and half-caste population to send their children. Native 
scholars were of course admitted, but were obliged to share in 
the religious instruction of the European children. These 
schools were under the charge of the Rev. Mr. Fullerton and 
his wife. Whether Missions in general repay the vast pecu- 
niary expense and sacrifice of life and talent which they ex- 
act, is a question concerning which I have strong doubts ; but 
that they have accomplished good in India, and that their 
ministers are conscientious, zealous and laborious men, I am 
well satisfied. 

Mr. Warren also took me to visit the Agra Jail, in which a 
new and interesting experiment is now being tested, The jail 
there is a sort of general penitentiary, whither prisoners are sent 
from all parts of the north-western provinces. The number 
then incarcerated was about 2,800. The jail encloses a space . 
of about forty acres, wherein are numbers of small buildings 
and manufactories, as the prisoners are all required to labor 
about eight hours a day. Dr. Walker, the Superintendent, 
who formerly had charge of the jail at Mynpoorie, introduced 
a system of prison education, which was so successful, that 
when he was promoted to the management of the great central 
jail at Agra, he determined to continue it. At first he 
experienced great difficulty, the prisoners suspecting that some 
mysterious Christian doctrine lay covert in the multiplication- 
table and the spelling-book ; but his perseverance so wrought 
upon them that all of those employed at labor within the jail 
(700 being kept upon the roads, in fettered gangs), were 
willing scholars. 



114 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

Dr. Walker was kind enough to conduct me through the 
jail, and put the prisoners through their exercises. It was a 
most remarkable spectacle. Here were hundreds of men 
seated at their looms, weaving carpets, singing the multiplica- 
tion table in thundering chorus. " TwelvG ii7nes iwelve,''^ sang 
the monitor, in a shrill solo : " One hundred and forty-four / '■ 
burst out the chorus, in all sorts of voices. We went into 
the blacksmith s shops, where the prisoners, bj a refinement of 
punishment, were made to forge their own fetters, themselves 
fettered. ^'' Seven times sixteen,^'' saiLg the solo, as he raised 
his hammer. ^^One hundred and tivelve,^^ was roared in nrswer, 
drowning the clang and bang of the iron. In the women's 
department there was a shrill tempest of vulgar fractions ; the 
30oks recited astronomical facts while mixing their rice. 
Even the hardest cases, confined in solitary cells, were going on 
Auth their " a-b ahs,^^ through a hole in the door, to a monitor 
standing outside. The murderers, confined for life (of whom 
there were several hundred), were not exempted, but went 
tlirough the numerals while thej worked at paper-making. I 
brought away a sheet of paper, made entirely by these wretches, 
and will present it to King Bomba, whenever he is ready to 
write his abdication. 

There is a monthly examination of the prisoners, and they 
who can read a short story, and repeat the multiplication table of 
whole numbers and fractions up to 16x16, 6|x25 and 6|x6^, 
are entitled to a visit from their friends or a bath in the 
Jumna, if Hindoos, and a visit to the Taj, if Moslems. The 
more advanced scholars are obliged to pass in writing, the 
facts of astronomy, simple and compound interest, &c. There 
is great emulation among the prisoners, and their progress is 



RESULTS OF THE SYSTEM. 115 

rery rapid. As one result of the system, in their moral im- 
provement, it will be enough to state that in 1851, before it 
was introduced , the number of punishments administered for 
offences committed within the jail, was 162; in 1852, after 
its introduction, the number so punished was 18. It is not 
much to the credit of the Government that it only allows the 
miserable sum of five rupees ($2 50) a month in support of 
80 important an experiment. 



116 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN- 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE RUINS OF FUTTEHPORE-SIKREE. 

Escursionto Futtet pore-Sikrce— The Road Thither— Approach to the Paiins— Thoir 
Extent and Grandeur— The Palace of Rajah Beer-Bul — Perfect Condition of the 
Remains— Shekh Bush tirat- All— Age of Futtehpore— The Emperor's Palace- 
Rooms of the Sultana Mariam— Akbar's Tolerance— The Five Palaces— The Pillar 
of Council— Profusion of Ornament — The Emperor's Salatation — The Elephant Gate 
and Tower — The Durgah — Shekh Selim-Chishti — He gives a Son to the Emperor — 
The Splendor of his Tomb — View from the Gateway — An Experiment — Tiffin in 
the Palace— The Story of the Rajah Beer-Bul and the Ruby— Last View of Futteh 
pore-Sikree. 

Before leaving Agra I made an excursion to the ruins of 
Futtelipore-Sikree, wliicli are about twenty-two miles to the 
west of the city. I had been so strongly counselled to visit 
the place, as well from its historic interest (having been the 
favorite residence of Akbar), as from the extent and magnifi- 
cence of its remains, that I postponed for another day, though 
reluctantly, my departure for Delhi. Mr. Sherer, one of the 
Secretaries of Government, kindly ofi"ered to accompany me, 
and through his familiarity with the history of those times, 
the new desolate spot was peopled for me with the phantoms 
of its former inhabitants. I have rarely had the Past so 



EXCURSION TO FUTTEHPORE-SIKREE. 11 

vividly restored, or so completely given myself up to its illu- 
sions. The day was one of the whitest in my calendar, and 
not unworthy to be chronicled beside the memorable Theban 
days of the previous year. 

In order to make the excursion in a single day, I had re- 
lays of horses sent out in advance, and took my departure be- 
fore sunrise, in a light garree — a two-wheeled vehicle, resem- 
bling a genteel cart. The road was broad and good for the first 
eight miles, and bordered by stately acacia, peepul and neem 
trees. I passed two or three large walled gardens, belonging 
to native Rajahs, and a cleanly little village, with several 
small temples to Vishnu and Shiva. The road gradually be- 
came rougher, though the country still continued level and 
tolerably cultivated. My horses, inspired by the pleasant 
morning air, trotted merrily along, and before three hours 
were over, Futtehpore-Sikree was in view, A low range of red 
sandstone hills appeared in the west, with here and there a 
crumbling ruin on the crest. The extremity of this range, 
about four miles distant, was covered with a mass of walls, 
terraces and spires, crowned with a majestic portal, which rose 
high above them, gleaming against the sky with a soft red lus- 
tre, as the sun shone full upon it. 

As I approached nearer, I found that this part of the hill 
was surrounded by a lofty wall of red sandstone, with a 
machicolated or notched parapet, and a spacious gate, through 
which my road ran. It is almost entire, and upwards of six 
miles in circuit, enclosing a portion of the plain on both sides of 
the hill. Driving through the deserted gateway, I was amazed 
ftt the piles of ruins which met my eye. Here was a narrow 
hill, nearly a mile and a half in length, and averaging a hun 



118 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

dred feet in height, almost entirely covered with the remains 
of palaces, mosques and public buildings, in some places near- 
ly as perfect as when first erected, in others little else than 
shapeless masses of hewn stones. Innumerable pavilions, 
resting on open arches, cupolas and turrets, shot up from this 
picturesque confusion ; but the great portal, of which I have 
already spoken, dominated over all, colossal as one of the 
pylons of Karnak. The series of arched terraces, rising one 
above another up the sides of the hill, gave the place an air 
of barbaric grandeur, such as we imagine Babylon to have 
possessed, and of which there are traces in Martin's pictures. 
But here there was nothing sombre or stern ; the bright red 
sandstone of the buildings, illumined here and there by a 
gilded spire, was bathed in a flood of sunshine, and stood, so 
shadowless as almost to lack perspective, against a cloudless 
sky. The modern village of Futtehpore at the foot of the 
hill, was adorned with beautiful trees, and that part of the 
plain enclosed within the ancient walls was green with fields 
of young wheat. 

I drove through the long, rambling street of Futtehpore^ 
not without considerable risk of destroying the stock of the* 
native merchants, for the space between their shopboards 
was scarcely wider than my garree. Then owing to the 
stupidity of the groom, who had missed the road, I was 
obliged to return as I came, and finally climbed the hill on 
foot. In the palace of Ptajah Beer-Bul one of Akbar's Prime 
Ministers, I found Mr. Sherer, who had come out during 
the night in a palanquin. The palace was an exquisite build- 
ing, quite uninjured, and had been fitted up with tables, chairs, 
carpets, etc., for the convenience of visitors to the place. 



SHEKH BUSHAEAT-ALI. 119 

There was a table set in a cool, vaulted hall in the second 
story, and Mr. Sherer's servants were preparing breakfast in 
the Rajah's kitchen. We took our seats on the massive stone 
terrace of the palace, to await the meal. The royal residence 
of Akbar was on our left; the grand Durgah, or tomb of 
Shekh Selim-Chishti on the right, and the empty quadrangles 
into which we looked showed no trace of ruin. The stone 
pavements were partly overrun with grass, but not a block of 
the arched corridors surrounding them had tumbled from its 
place. How like yesterday seemed the Futtehpore of three 
centuries ago ! The palace was deserted, not ruined, and its 
lord was not dead, but absent. I felt like an intruder in the 
sculptured chambers of Beer-Bul, and should not have been 
much surprised, had a chobdar, with his silver mace, made his 
appearance, to drive me away. 

The guardian of the place, a lusty old Mussulman, named 
Shekh Busharat-Ali, came to make his salaam and accompany 
me over the ruins. He was a stout man of fifty-five, with a 
gray moustache, and a face expressive of great good-will and 
good-humor. He wore a white turban and a cotton gown, tied 
on the left shoulder, so as to expose the left side of a most sleek 
and capacio'ds chest. The Hindoos and Parsees tie their gar- 
ments on the right shoulder, in opposition to the Mussulmen. 
Bushurat-Ali was a very devout follower of the Prophet, and 
knew most of the Koran in Arabic. He was greatly delight- 
ed when I addressed him in that language, and thereafter was 
continually repeating prayers and singing passages of the Ko 
ran, that I might perceive how much he knew. His know 
ledge of Futtehpore was much inferior to that of Mr. Sherei^ 
who had carefully studied the history of Akbar's reign, but 



120 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

he was a pleasant comjDauiou during our rambles among the 
ruins, and we suffered him to go through with his stories and 
traditions as usual. 

After breakfast, we set out to make a thorough survey of 
the place. I should first state that Futtehpore-Sikree was a 
country residence of Akbar, and stood in the same relation 
to Agra that Windsor Castle does to London. It was comple 
ted in 1571, and for twelve years his court was stationed there. 
At that time it must have been a populous place, but it is prob- 
able that the dwellings of the lower classes of the natives 
consisted then, as now, of mud huts, for there are very few 
ruins on the plain surrounding the hill. The existence of a 
Mint, and other public edifices, on a very large scale, shows 
that it was considered as a temporary capital, rather than as a 
mere palace of summer resort. 

Commencing with the Emperor's palace, we first visited 
the separate dwelling assigned to his Christian wife. This, 
unlike other Moslem buildings, is covered with paintings in 
fresco, evidently by Persian artists. They are said to repre- 
sent the adventures of the hero Rustum as related in Firdusi's 
" Shall Nameh.'^'' Certain niches, however, over the doors and 
windows, contain pictures of a different character, and cer- 
tainly have a religious significance. On one side are the 
Hindoo gods and goddesses — the elephant-headed Ganeish, 
Mahadeo, and Lokshmi — and on the other two tablets, almost 
obliterated, but still sufficiently distinct to show that one of 
them is intended for the Annunciation. Akbar's latitude in 
religious matters is well known, but I had not given him 
credit for so much toleration as this would imply. Among 
the ornamental designs of this palace, the G-reek Cross is not 



akbar's palace. 121 

unusual, and it is related that when the Jesuits solicited the 
Emperor's protection, he replied to them : " What would you 
have ? See ! I have more crosses on my palace than yoii in 
your churches." 

The buildings of the palace cover the crest of the hill, hav- 
ing superb views on both sides, over many a league of the 
fruitful plain. There is quite a labyrinth of courts, pavilions, 
small palaces, gateways, tanks, fountains, and terraces, and I 
found it difficult to obtain a clear idea of their arrangement. 
Most of the buildings are so well preserved that a trifling ex- 
pense would make them habitable. For a scholar or poet I 
can conceive of no more delightful residence. Adjoining the 
palace of the Christian woman, stands the Panch-Mahal (Five 
Palaces), consisting of five square platforms, resting on richly 
carved pillars, and rising one above another in h. pyramidal 
form, to a considerable height. Mr. Sherer supposes it to have 
been a sleeping place for the servants connected with the 
palace. Beyond it Is a court-yard, paved with large slabs of 
sandstone, and containing a colossal ^ac/mi-board, such as I 
have described in speaking of the Palace at Agra. In one 
corner of the court-yard is a labyrinthine building, of singular 
design, wherein the ladies of the Emperor's zenana were 
accustomed to play hide-and-seek. A little further is a sort 
of chapel, two stories high, and crowned with several cupolas. 
On entering, however, I found that there was but one story, 
extending to the dome, with a single pillar in the centre, rising 
to the height of the upper windows. This pillar has an im- 
mense capital of the richest sculpture, three times its diameter, 
with four stone causeways leading to the four corners of the 
chapel, where there are small platforms of the shape of a 



122 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

quadrant. Tradition says that this building was used by 
Akbar as a place for discussing matters of science or religion, 
himself occupying the capital of the central pillar, while his 
chief men were seated in the four corners. 

In this same court is a pavilion, consisting of a pyramidal 
canopy of elaborately carved stone, resting on four pillars, 
which have a cornice of peculiar design, representing a serpent. 
This pavilion approaches as near the Hindoo style of building, 
as is possible, without violating the architecture of the palace, 
which is a massive kind of Saracenic. It was the station of a 
Gooroo, or Hindoo Saint, whom Akbar, probably from motives 
of policy, kept near him. The palace of the Sultana of 
Constantinople is one mass of the most laborious sculpture. 
There is scarcely a square inch of blank stone in the building. 
Eut the same remark would apply to almost the whole of the 
palace, as well as to that of Beer-Bul. It is a wilderness of 
sculpture, where invention seems to have been taxed to the 
utmost to produce new combinations of ornament. Every 
thing is carved in a sandstone so fine and compact, that, ex- 
cept where injured by man, it appears nearly as sharp as when 
first chiselled. The amount of labor bestowed on Futtehpore 
throws the stucco filigrees of the Alhambra quite into the 
shade. It is unlike any thing that I have ever seen. And 
yet the very name of this spendid collection of ruins, which 
cannot be surpassed anywhere, outside of Egypt, was unknown 
to me, before reaching India ! 

We paid rather a hasty visit to the Dhodn-e^-JchaZj the 
Diwdn e'-am^ and the mint. The latter is an immense quad- 
rangle, half blocked up with ruins. lu the diwan-e'-am, is 
the balcony where Akbar usually made his public appearance 



ELEPHANT GATE AND TOWER. 123 

in the morning, to the crowd waiting in the court to see or 
petition him. He was greeted on these occasions with the cry 
of '^ Allah akhar!^'' (God is great !) to .which he invariably 
replied : Jilli jellallihoo I " (May his glory shine !) This was 
a mode of salutation introduced by himself, because the two 
phrases contained his name-Jellal-ud-deen Akbar. I. have 
frequently heard a very similar style of address in Bohemia, 
where the greeting is : " Praised be Jesus Christ ! " and the 
answer : " In eternity. Amen." 

On the north side of Beer-Bul's palace, a little further 
down the hill, is the famous Elephant Gate. Akbar at one 
time intended to make a fortress of the place, and com- 
menced by building this gate, which is a very noble structure, 
flanked by two octagonal bastions : but Shekh Selim-Chishti, in 
whose sanctity the Emperor had great faith, threatened to 
leave, in case the plan vas jr^rried out, and the fortress was 
therefore relinquished. On each side of the gate is a colos- 
sal elephant, on a lofty pedestal, but both the animals have 
lost their trunks, and are otherwise mutilated. A steep paved 
road, between gardens, hanging one below the other on arched 
terraces, interrupted occasionally by the ruins of palaces, leads 
down the hill to the Elephant's Tower, a minaret about ninety 
feet high, and studded from top to bottom with the tusks of 
elephants. There is much discussion concerning its character, 
but the most plausible supposition is that it was erected by 
Akbar over the grave of a favorite elephant. It is called by 
the natives the Hirun 3Iinar (x\ntelope tower). 

By this time it was two hours past noon, and I still had 
the famous Durgah to see. "We therefore retraced our steps, 
and ascended to the highest part of the hill, where the tomb 



124 



INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 



rises like a Buge square fortress, overtopping the palace of 
Akbar himself. We mounted a long flight of steps, and en- 
tered a quadrangle so spacious, so symmetrical, so wonderful 
in its decorations, that I was filled with amazement. Fancy a 
paved court-j^ard, 428 feet in length by 406 in breadth, sur- 
rounded with a pillared corridor 50 feet high; one of the 
noblest gateways in the world, 120 feet high; a triple-domed 
mosque on one side ; a large tank and fountain in the centre, 
and opposite the great portal, the mother-of-pearl and marble 
tomb of the Shekh, a miniature palace, gleaming like crystal, 
with its gilded domes, its ivory pillars, and its wreaths of won- 
drous, flower-like ornaments, inwrought in marble filigree. 
The court, with its immense gate, seemed an enchanted fortress, 
solely erected to guard the precious structure within. 

Shekh Selim-Chishti was a very holy man, who became 
known as such by his intimacy with tigers, several of whom 
lived with him in a cave on the hill where his tomb now 
stands. His renown reached the ears of Akbar, who, finding 
him to be a man of apparent sanctity and considerable wis- 
dom, built the palace of Futtehpore-Sikree, it is said, to be 
near him. He consulted him on all important occasions, and, 
as the story goes, was finally indebted to him for an heir to 
his throne. For some time after Akbar's accession, he was 
without a son, and twice demanded of the Shekh whether he 
should ever have one. "No," said the latter; "it is not so 
written." Now he, the Shekh, had an infant son of six 
months old ; for these Moslem saints are the reverse of celi- 
bates. Upon Akbar coming to make the demand a third 
time, and receiving the same answer, this infant, who was 
present in his cradle during the interview, suddenly spoke 



THE 6HEKII AND THE EMPEROIi's SON. 125 

althougli never before bad lie so mucli as lisped a syllable, 
" Father," said he, " why do you send away the Conqueror of 
the World, in despair?" "Because," said the Shekh, 
although he marvelled not a little at this unexpected ques- 
tion; "there is no sou written for him, unless another will 
give up the life of a child destined for him ; and who will do 
this ? " " If you permit me, father," said the infant, " I will 
die, that a son may be born to the Emperor," — and even be- 
fore the Shekh signified his consent, he gave up the ghost. 
That day an heir to the throne was conceived, and in due time 
was born. There are scandalous persons, however, who say 
that this is an allegory, veiling a truth, and that the Shekh, in 
procuring an heir for the Emperor, did, in fact, give up his 
own son, but without destroying his life. Be that as it may, 
Jehan-Ghir, the son of Akbar, bore the name of Selim until 
he ascended the throne. 

Wo are allowed to enter the inner corridor which sur- 
rounds the Shekh's tomb, and to look in, but not to cross the 
threshold. The tomb, as well as a canopy six feet high, 
which covers it, is made of mother-of-pearl. The floor is of 
jasper, and the walls of white marble, inlaid with cornelian. 
A cloth of silk and gold was spread over it like a pall, and 
upon this were wreaths of fresh and withered flowers. The 
screens of marble surrounding the building are the most 
beautiful in India. They are single thin slabs, about eight 
feet square, and wrought into such intricate open patterns 
that you would say they had been woven in a loom. The 
mosque, which is of older date than the tomb, is very elegant, 
resembling somewhat the Hall of the Abencerrages in the 
Alhambra, except that it is much larger, and of white marble, 



126 



instead oT stucco. Busharat-Ali informed me tliat the Dur- 
gah was erected in one year, from the wealth left by the 
Shekh Selim-Chishti at his death, and that it cost thirty-seven 
lacs of rupees — $1,750,000. 

We ascended to the summit of the great gateway, for the 
sake of the panoramic view of Futtehpore-Sikree, and the ad- 
jacent country. It is a vast plain, and our horizon was de- 
scribed by a radius of twenty miles — a circle of fresh wheat- 
fields, dotted with mango-groves, and now and then the blue 
gleam of a river or irrigating canal. There were some low 
hills in the west, and the famous citadel of Bhurtpore, in that 
direction, was barely visible. The country, though less gar- 
den-like, reminded me of the plain of the Nile. A few years 
ago it was all an uncultivated waste. Mr. Thomasson, the 
late Lieutenant-Grovernor of the north-western provinces, 
happening to be at Futtehpore-Sikree one day, heard a native 
say that in Akbar's time, the country was annually over- 
flowed, so that the palace was in the midst of a lake. 
"Well," said Mr. T., "I will overflow it, too." And he 
ordered the banks of a small river, which flows into the Jum- 
na near Bhurtpore, to be cut away, so that, when the rainy 
season came, the water spread over about twenty square miles 
of land. That year the natives had crops such as had never 
been heard of in those parts, but they had also a fever, which 
carried off eight hundred persons. However, the Grovernor 
made his work good, by cutting a canal to take off the inun- 
dation, and now the region has regained its health, and kept 
its big crops into the bargain. 

We went back to Beer-Bul's palace, where the servants 
had prepared tifiiD in the mean time. Busharat-Ali sang an 



THE BTORY OF BEER-BUL AND THE RUBY. 127 

Arab love-song, and told us tales of the time of Akbar. 
Some of these could not very well be repeated, as, like most 
Eastern stories, they were narratives of skilful intrigue ; but 
there was one relating to Beer-bul himself, which I here re- 
late in the Shekh's words, merely omitting some of his end- 
less repetitions of phrases. 

"One day," so began the old man, "Akbar-Shah and 
Kajah Beer-bul were sitting together. Akbar said to Beer- 
bul, ' What would you do, if a great misfortune fell upon 
you? ' Said Beer-bul, 'I should give myself up to pleasure.' 
^ How to pleasure,' said Akbar, ' when you were unfortu- 
nate?' 'Still,' said Beer-bul, 'I should do it.' The next 
day Akbar said to Beer-bul, ' Take this ruby, and keep it till 
I call for it.' Now it was a ruby worth millions of rupees, 
such as there never was in the world, before nor since. So 
Beer-bul took the ruby home to his daughter, and bade her 
keep it carefully, for it belonged to Akbar-Shah; and she 
locked it up in a chest with three locks. 

" Then Akbar sent to the greatest robber in the place, 
who was condemned to die, and had him brought before him. 
' Bobber,' said he, ' I will give you your life, if you can do 
on.e thing for me.' ' What is that ? ' said the robber. ' You 
must steal from my Minister, Beer-bul, a ruby which I have 
given him to keep,' said Akbar-Shah. The robber agreed, 
and no sooner had he gone into the city upon this errand, 
than he sent for a very cunning little old woman. There is 
now no woman living who is so cunning as she was, although" 
— interpolated the Shekh, with a sly twinkle of the eye — 
" there are still some, who would be a match for Ebliz him- 
self. Well, this little cunning old woman went to Beer-bul'a 



125 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

daughter and engaged herself as maid, aud slie gradually so 
won lier confidence that Beer-bul's dau2;hter showed her the 
box with three locks and the ruby. So she filched the keys, 
opened the locks, took the ruby, and gave it to the robber, 
who brought it to Akbar. Then Akbar threw it into the 
Jumna, and sent for Beer-bul. ' Bring me the ruby,' said 
he. ' Very well,' said Beer-bul, and went home to bring it, 
but behold ! it was stolen. ' Well, where's the ruby ? ' said 
Akbar. ' Your Majesty shall have it in fifteen days.' * Very 
well,' said Akbar, ' but remember that your head is security 
for it.' 

" Beer-bul vrent home, and said to his daughter, ' We have 
but fifteen days to live — let us spend them in festivity.' So 
they ate, and drank, and gave feasts and dances, till in twelve 
days they had spent many lacs of rupees, and there was not a 
pice left them to buy food. They remained thus two days. 
On the fourteenth morning, the daughter of a fisherman who 
fished in the Jumna, said to her father : ' Father, the Rajah 
Beer-bul and his daughter have had nothing to eat for two 
days; let me take them this fish for breakfast.' So she took 
them the fish, which Beer-bul's daughter received with many 
thanks, and immediately cooked. But as they were eating it, 
there came a pebble into Beer-bul's mouth. He took it out in 
his fingers, and, wah ! it was the ruby. The next morning he 
went to Akbar-Shah, and said : * Here is the ruby, as I prom- 
ised.' Akbar was covered with surprise ; but when he had 
heard the story, he gave Beer-bul two crores of rupees, and 
said that he spoke the truth — it was better to rejoice than to 
grieve in misfortune." 

The moral of this story is rather awkwardly brought out. 



FAREWELL TO FDTTEHPORE-SIKREE. 129 

but the plot is curious, from its resemblance to the ' Pting of 
Poljcrates." It was spun out to a much greater iength in 
the Shekh's narration. 

I took leave of Mr. Sherer, who was to go back in the 
evening by palanquin, shook hands with Busharat-Ali, and 
drove slowly down the hill, and out the gate. I was about 
two miles distant when the sun went down in a broad crimson 
glory, and my last view of Futtehpore-Sikree was as a dark 
band, sublime against the deepening brilliancy. But I shall 
long remember the day I spent in its palaces. 



6* 



CHAPTER X. 

THE TAJ MAHAL. 

Distant Views ol tlie Taj— Tomb of Itmim e" Dowiah— The Garden of Rama— Night 
Worship— The Taj Mahal— Its Origin— The Light of the Harem— Portal and Avenue 
to the Taj— Its Form— Its Inlaid Marbles and Jewel Work— Tomb of Noor-Jehan— 
The Dome— Resemblance to Florentine Art— Proofs of Saracenic Design— The 
Echo under the Dome -Beanty of the Taj — Saracenic Architecture — Plan of Shah 
Jehan— Garree Dawk — Leaving Agra — Night— Allyghur— The Grand Trunk Road 
—Distant View of Delhi— Arrival. 

I PURPOSELY postponed my visit to the Taj Mahal — the most 
renowned monument of Agra — until I had seen every thing 
else in the city and its vicinity. The distant view of this 
matchless edifice satisfied me that its fame was well deserved. 
So pure, so gloriously perfect did it appear, that I almost 
feared to approach it, lest the charm should be broken. It is 
seen to best advantage from the tomb of Itmun e' Dowiah, 
the Prime Minister of Shah Jehan, which stands in a garden 
on the northern bank of the Jumna, directly opposite to the 
city. I spent an afternoon at this tomb and the Ram Bagh, 
(G-arden of Rama,) two miles further up the river. The for- 
mer is a mausoleum of white marble, elegantly sculptured and 
inlaid, standing on a raised platform, from the corners of 



THE GARDEN OF RAMA. 131 

whicli rise marble minarets. Its design shows tlie same 
purity of taste, the same richness of fancy, which I had pre- 
viously remarked in the Pearl Mosque, and afterward in the 

raj. 

The Earn Bagh is a garden which, I believe, formerly 
belonged to the Mogul Emjierors, and is now kept in order as 
a place of recreation, by the Government. Too much praise 
cannot be awarded to the British rulers in India, for the care 
with which they have restored and protected all of these mon- 
uments of the past, expending large sums to prevent the 
mosques, palaces and tombs of the former rulers from falling 
into decay. On account of the humidity of the soil, and the 
abundance of insects and reptiles, the Ram Bagh is traversed 
by raised stone causeways, the principal of which inclose 
water tanks and fountains. It is a pleasant, shady retreat, 
with a stone balcony overhanging the rapid Jumna, and com- 
manding a view of many ruined palaces on the opposite bank. 
There are suites of apartments, comfortably furnished, which 
are let to visitors at the rate of a rupee per day ; but when 
the applications are frequent, no one is allowed to stay more 
than eight days, in order to give a chance to others. My 
friends brought their servants and a handsome tiffin, of which 
we all partook, in the largest chamber. We returned across 
the bridge of boats in the evening. The Hindoos had lighted 
lamps in front of the many little shrines facing the water, 
and in some of them stood persons waving a torch back and 
forth before the face of the god, crying out at the same time : 
" Ram, Ram, Ram ! " " Ram, Seeta, Ram ! " This cere- 
mony, with the pouring of the Jumna water over the image, 
and decorating it with wreaths of flowers, appeared to be the 



132 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

only form of worship observed. There are more substantial 
offerings made, but if the god gets them, the Brahmins take 
care that he shall not keep them. 

To return to the Taj — for the reader expects me to de- 
scribe it, and I must comply, although reluctantly, for I am 
aware of the difficulty of giving an intelligible picture of a 
building, which has no counterpart in Europe, or even in the 
East. The mosques and palaces of Constantinople, the domed 
tent of Omar at Jerusalem, and the structures of the Sara- 
cens and Memiooks at Cairo, have nothing in common with it. 
The remains of Moorish art in Spain approach nearest to its 
spirit, but are only the scattered limbs, the torso, of which 
the Taj is the perfect type. It occupies that place in Sara- 
cenic art, which, during my visit to Constantinople, I mis- 
takenly gave to the Solymanye Jlosque, and which, in respect 
to Grecian art, is represented by the Parthenon. If there 
were nothing else in India, this alone would repay the jour- 
ney. 

The history and associations of the Taj are entirely poetic. 
It is a work inspired by Love, and consecrated to Beauty. 
Shah Jehan, the " Selim " of Moore's poem, erected it as a 
mausoleum over his queen, Noor Jehan — " the Light of the 
World " — whom the same poet calls Noor-Mahal, " the Light 
of the Harem," or more properly, " Palace." She is reputed 
to have been a woman of surpassing beauty, and of gTcat wit 
and intelligence. Shah Jehan was inconsolable for her loss, 
and has immortalized her memory in a poem, the tablets of 
which are marble, and the letters jewels : — for the Taj is 
poetry transmuted into form, and hence, when a poet sees it, 
he hails it with the rapture of a realized dream. Few per- 



PORTAL AND AVENUE TO THE TAJ. 133 

sons, of the thousands -who sigh over the pages of Lalla 
Kookh, are aware that the " Light of the Harem " was a real 
personage, and that her tomb is one of the wonders of the 
world. The native miniature painters in Delhi show jou her 
portrait, painted on ivory — a small, rather delicate face, with 
large, dark, piercing eyes, and black hair flowing from under 
a scarf adorned with peacock's feathers. 

The Taj is built on the bank of the Jumna, rather more 
than a mile to the eastward of the Fort of Agra. It is ap- 
proached by a handsome road, cut through the mounds left by 
the ruins of ancient palaces. Like the tomb of Akbar, it 
stands in a large garden, inclosed by a lofty wall of red sand- 
stone, with arched galleries around the interior. The en- 
trance is a superb gateway of sandstone, inlaid with orna- 
ments and inscriptions from the Koran, in white marble. 
Outside of this grand portal, however, is a spacious quad- 
rangle of solid masonry, with an elegant structure intended 
as a caravanserai", on the opposite side. Whatever may be 
the visitor's impatience, he cannot help pausing to notice the 
fine proportions of these structures, and the rich and massive 
style of their architecture. The gate to the garden of the 
Taj is not so large as that of Akbar's tomb, but quite as 
beautiful in design. Passing under the open demi-vault, 
whose arch hangs high above you, an avenue of dark Italian 
cypresses appears before you. Down its centre sparkles a 
long row of fountains, each casting up a single slender jet. 
On both sides, the palm, the banyan, and the feathery bam- 
boo mingle their foliage ; the song of birds meets your ear^ 
and the odor of roses and lemcn-fiowers svveetens the air. 
Down such a vista, and over such a foreground, rises the Taj. 



134 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

It is an octagonal building, or rather, a square with the 
corners truncated, and each side precisely similar. It stands 
upon a lofty platform, or pedestal, with a minaret at each cor- 
ner, and this, again, is lifted on a vast terrace of solid ma- 
sonry. An Oriental dome, swelling out boldly from the base 
into nearly two-thirds of a sphere, and tapering at the top 
into a crescent-tipped spire, crowns the edifice, rising from its 
centre, with four similar, though much smaller domes, at the 
corners. On each side there is a grand entrance, formed by 
a single pointed arch, rising nearly to the cornice, and two 
smaller arches (one placed above the other) on either hand. 
The height of the building, from its base to the top of the 
dome, is 262 feet, and of the minarets, about 200 feet. But 
no words can convey an idea of the exquisite harmony of the 
different parts, and the grand and glorious effect of the whole 
structure, with its attendant minarets. 

The material is of the purest white marble, little inferior 
to that of Carrara. It shines so dazzlingly in the sun, that 
you can scarcely look at it near at hand, except in the morn- 
ing and evening. Every part — even the basement, the dome, 
and the upper galleries of the minarets — is inlaid with orna- 
mental designs in marble of different colors, principally a 
pale brown, and a bluish violet variety. Great as are the 
dimensions of the Taj, it is as laboriously finished as one of 
those Chinese caskets of ivory and ebony, which are now so 
common in Europe. Bishop Ileber truly said : " The 
Pathans designed like Titans, and finished like jewellers." 
Around all the arches of the portals and the windows — 
around the cornice and the domes — on the walls and in the 
passages, are inlaid chapters of the Koran, the letters being 



THE TOMB OF NOOR-JEHAN. 135 

exquisitely formed of black marble. It is asserted that the 
whole of the Koran is thus inlaid, in the Taj, and I can read- 
ily believe it to be true. The building is perfect in every 
part. Any dilapidations it may have suffered are so well 
restored that all traces of them have disappeared. 

I ascended to the base of the building — a gleaming mar- 
ble platform, almost on a level with the tops of the trees in 
the garden. Before entering the central hall, I descended to 
the vault where the beautiful Noor-Jehan is buried, A slop- 
ing passage, the walls and floor of which have been so polished 
by the hands and feet of thousands, that you must walk care- 
fully to avoid sliding down, conducts to a spacious vaulted 
chamber. There is no light but what enters the door, and 
this falls directly upon the tomb of the Queen in the centre. 
Shah-Jehan, whose ashes are covered by a simpler cenotaph, 
raised somewhat above hers, sleeps by her side. The vault 
was filled with the odors of rose, jasmine, and sandal-wood, 
the precious attars of which are sprinkled upon the tomb. 
Wreaths of beautiful flowers lay upon it, or withered around 
its base. 

These were the true tombs, the monuments for display 
being placed in the grand hall above, which is a lofty rotunda, 
lighted both from above and below by screens of marble, 
wrought in filigree. It is paved with blocks of white marble 
and jasper, and ornamented with a wainscoting of sculptured 
tablets, representing flowers. The tombs are sarcophagi of 
the purest marble, exquisitely inlaid with blood-stone, agate, 
cornelian, lapis-lazuli, and other precious stones, and sur- 
rounded with an octagonal screen six feet high, in the open 
tracery of which lilies, irises, and other flowers are inter 



136 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

wrought with the most intricate ornamental designs. This is 
also of marble, covered with precious stones. From the re- 
semblance of this screen and the workmanship of the'tomb to 
Florentine mosaic, it is supposed by some to have been exe- 
cuted by an Italian artist ; and I have even heard it stated 
that the Taj was designed by an Italian architect. One 
look at the Taj ought to assure any intelligent man that this 
is false — nay, impossible, from the very nature of the thing. 
The Taj is the purest Saracenic, in form, proportions, and 
ornamental designs. If that were not sufficient, we have still 
the name of the Moslem architect, sculptured upon the 
building. 

I consider it extremely doubtful whether any Italian had 
any thing to do with the work, though it is barely possible 
that one may have been employed upon the screen around the 
tombs. In the weekly account of the expenditures for the 
building of the Taj, there is a certain sum mentioned as paid 
to " the foreign stone-cutter," who may either have been 
Italian, Turkish, or Persian. As for the flowers, represented 
in bas-relief on the marble panels, it has been said that they 
are not to be found in India. Now these flowers, as near as 
they can be identified, are the tulip, the iris, (both natives of 
Persia,) and the lotus. But I noticed a curious feature in 
the sculpture, which makes it clear to me that the artist was 
a native. The flowers lack perspective, which would never 
have been the fault of an Italian artist of Shah Jehan's 
time — about the middle oi the seventeenth century. Bishop 
Heber has declared that he recognized Italian art in the 
ornaments of the Taj, but he declared also that its minarets 
have no beauty, that the Fort of Agra is built of granite, and 



THE ECHO UNDER THE DOME. 137 

fell into many other glaring errors, Loth of taste and observa- 
tion, which I have no time to point out. 

The dome of the Taj contains an echo more sweet, pure 
and prolonged than that in the Baptistry of Pisa, which is 
the finest in Europe. A single musical tone, uttered by the 
voice, floats and soars overhead, in a long, delicious undula- 
tion, fainting away so slowly that you hear it after it is silent, 
as you see, or seem to see, a lark you have been watching, 
after it is swallowed up in the blue of heaven. I pictured to 
myself the effect of an Arabic or Persian lament for the 
lovely Noor Jehan, sung over her tomb. The responses that 
would come from above, in the pauses of the song, must re- 
semble the harmonies of angels in Paradise. The hall, not- 
withstanding the precious materials of which it is built, and 
the elaborate finish of its ornaments, has a grave and solemn 
effect, infusing a peaceful serenity of mind, such as we feel 
when contemplating a happy death. Stern, unimaginative 
persons have been known to burst suddenly into tears, on en- 
tering it ; and whoever can behold the Taj without feeling a 
thrill that sends the moisture to his eye, has no sense of 
beauty in his soul. 

The Taj truly is, as I have already said, a poem. It is 
not only a pure architectural type, but also a creation which 
satisfies the imagination, because its characteristic is Beauty. 
Did you ever build a Castle in the Air? Here is one, 
brought down to earth, and fixed for the wonder of ages ; yet 
BO light it seems, so airy, and, when seen froni a distance, so 
like a fabric of mist and sunbeams, with its great dome soar- 
ing up, a silvery bubble, about to burst in the sun, that, even 
after you have touched it, and climbed to its summit, you 



138 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

almo^ doubt its reality. The four minarets wliicli surround 
it are perfect — no other epithet will describe them. You 
cannot conceive of their proportions being changed in any 
way, without damage to the general effect. On one side of 
the Taj is a mosque with three domes, of red sandstone, cov- 
ered with mosaic of white marble. Now, on the opposite 
side, there is a building precisely similar, but of no use what- 
ever, except as a balance to the mosque, lest the perfect sym- 
metry of the whole design should be spoiled. This building 
is called the jowah^ or " answer." Nothing can better illus- 
trate the feeling for proportion which prevailed in those days 
— and proportion is Art. 

In comparing these masterpieces of architecture with the 
Moorish remains in Spain, which resemble them most nearly, 
I have been struck with the singular fact, that while, at the 
central seats of the Moslem Empire, Art reached but a com- 
parative degree of development, here, in India, and there, on 
the opposite and most distant frontiers, it attained a rapid 
and splendid culmination. The capitals of the Caliphs and 
the Sultans — Bagdad, Cairo, Damascus, and Constantinople — 
stand far below Agra and Delhi, Grranada and Seville, in 
point of architecture, notwithstanding the latter cities have 
but few and scattered remains. It is not improbable that the 
Moorish architects, after the fall of Granada, gradually made 
their way to the eastward, and that their art was thus brought 
to India — or, at least, that they modified and improved the 
art then existing. The conquest of India by Baber, (grand- 
son of Tamerlane and grandfather of Akbar,) is almost coeval 
with the expulsion of the Moors from Granada. 

But the sun grows hot ; it is nearly noon. "^Ye have spent 



PLAN OF SHAH JEHAN. 139 

three hours in and around the Taj, and we must leave it. 
Nothing that is beautiful can be given up without a pang, but 
if a man would travel, he must endure many such partings. 
I must add, however, before we go, that on the opposite bank 
of the Jumna there is an immense foundation-terrace, where- 
on, it is said. Shah Jehan intended to erect a tomb for him- 
self, of equal magnificence, but the rebellion of his sons, and 
his own death, prevented it. What the gods permitted to 
Love, they forbade to Vanity. A shekh, who takes care of 
the Taj, told me, that had the Emperor carried out his design, 
the tombs were to have been joined by a bridge, with a silver 
railing on each side. He told me that the Taj, with its gate- 
ways, mosque, and other buildings attached, had cost seven 
crores of rupees — $35,000,000. This, however, is quite im- 
possible, when we consider the cheapness of labor in those 
days, and I believe the real cost is estimated at £3,000,000 
($15,000,000), which does not seem exaggerated. 

On the same evening, after visiting the Taj, I left Agra 
for Delhi. My kind host, Mr. Warren, whose hospitality was 
untiring, gave me letters to his colleagues in other parts of 
India, and his lady furnished me with the needful provisions 
for the journey. I went by the garreo-daivh, which was a 
great improvement both upon the banghy and mail-carts. 
There were three rival companies for the conveyance of pas- 
sengers, by carriages, on the Grand Trunk Road, as it is 
called, extending from Calcutta to Delhi, a distance of nine 
hundred miles. Four years ago, there was no other way of 
travelling, except on horseback or in a palanquin. Progress 
in India, though slow, is perceptible. The garree resembles 
a cab, with the space between the back and front seats filled 



140 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

up and covered with a mattrass. You proviJ* yourself with a 
quilt and pillow, stow your baggage into the bottom, and take 
your ease, as if upon your own bed. Thus you can travel, 
and even sleep, with a tolerable degree of comfort. There 
are relays of horses, about six miles apart, and if no accident 
should happen, the garree rolls on at the rate of seven miles 
an hour. 

I left Agra at eight o clock in the evening. It was a raw, 
misty, moonlit night, and I found an overcoat indispensable. 
Indeed, during the week I spent in the place, I suffered con- 
tinually from cold. We had fires in the morning and even- 
ing, and I was fain to get into the sun at mid-day, though 
warned not to expose myself to his rays. There was no frost, 
but the making of ice was carried on briskly, and three thou- 
sand maunds (120,000 lbs.) were already stored in the ice- 
house. I sat up to take a last view of the Fof t and Jumma 
Musjeed, paid half a rupee toll at the bridge of boats over 
the Jumna, and then lay down on my mattrass, to try the 
effect of my new conveyance. It was really quite agreeable, 
and except when the horses were changed, or took a fancy to 
baulk and plunge, I could sleep without difficulty. About 
three o'clock in the morning, the driver awoke me to an- 
nounce his hudlee, or substitute, (a hint for backsheesh,) de- 
claring that we were at Allyghur. This was once a strong 
fortress, and the scene of a battle between the English and 
native troops. There is a pillar erected to commemorate it, 
which pillar I saw in the moonlight, as we drove on towards 
Delhi. 

The morning showed a splendid road, leading over a 
boundless plain, covered with fields of wheat, barley, mustard, 



APPROACH TO DELHI. 141 

aad poppies, and dotted with groves of mango or tamarind 
trees. Its aspect continued unvaried for hours, except that 
there was once or twice a low red hill in the distance, or a 
native town, with whitewashed mos(|ues and mouldy Hindoo 
temples near at hand. The road was crowded with native 
travellers, with bullock-carts, ponies, and on foot, and other 
garrees, conveying the ^^ sahib log^'' (nobility) of the land, 
passed me frequently. I noticed a sort of native omnibus, 
drawn by slow horses, wherein natives, and they only, are 
conveyed at the rate of one anna (three cents) per mile. This 
is a recent invention. 

The plain gradually lost its mango groves, and assumed a 
bleak and sterile appearance. I crossed a river by a hand- 
some suspension bridge, then the Eastern Jumna Canal, and 
in the afternoon, when still twelve miles distant from Delhi, 
descried its mosques on the horizon. As I approached, the 
great fortress-palace built by Shah Jehan, (nearly as large as 
the Fort, at Agra,) rose from the plain. The city, which lies 
to the west of it, was almost hidden by trees, which belt it 
around. The superb domes of the great mosque rose above 
them, and on either hand I could see immense tombs and 
other ruined edifices, scattered far and wide over the plain. 
I crossed the Jumna, which is here as broad as at Agra, by a 
bridge of boats, passed a very old, crumbling fortress, over- 
grown with trees and bushes, then Ih'" Imperial Palace, nov;- 
occupied by His Majesty, Akbar II., and was finally set down 
at the dawk bungalow. The first thing I did, on arriving in 
the capital of the Great Mogul, was to order dinner, and by 
the time that business was over, it was too dark to see any 
thing of the city. I had a letter to Mr. Place, of the Delhi 



142 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

hi Ghzette^ and after making many inquiries of the chokedar, 
who finally recognized him as being " Palace Sahib " and the 
" chapim-khana-walla " (printing-office fellow !) procured & 
guide to his residence. The next morning I shifted my qua/- 
ters to the shelter of his hospitable roof. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE CAPITAL OF THE GREAT MOGUL, 

Delhi— The Mogul Empire at Present— Ruins of former Delhis— The Observatory— A 
Wilderness of Euin— Tomb of Sufdur Jung— The Khuttub Minar— Its Beauty— View 
from the SumiTiit — Uncertainty of its Origin — The Palace of Aladdin — Ruins of a 
Hindoo Temple — Tomb of the Emperor Humayoon — Of Nizam-ud-deen — Native 
Sam Patches— Old Delhi- Aspect of the Modern City— The Chandnee Choke— Ba- 
yaderes— Delhi Artisans and Artists — The Jumma Musjeed — A Hindoo Minstrel and 
Lis Songs — The Palace of Akbar II. — Neglect and Desolation— The Diwan — An 
Elysium on Earth— The Throne Hall— The Crystal Throne— The Court of Akbar II. 
—A Farce of Empire — The Gardens — Voices of the Sultanas — Palace Pastimes. 

Delhi is the Imperial City of India, having been chosen by 
the Mogul Conquerors as their capital, which it thenceforth 
remained, except during the reign of Akbar. After the 
death of Aurungzebe, the power of the Emperors gradually 
declined ; the Mahrattas and Rajpoots laid waste and seized 
upon their territories, and finally the English, who found that 
the shortest way of effecting their object as peace-makers was 
to become conquerors, took wha.t fragments remained of the 
Empire. The sovereignty, however, is still acknowledged and 
treated with the same outward ceremonials of respect and 
submission, as when the Company owned nothing but a fac- 
tory in Bengal, and the Mogul was lord of all India. The 
dominions of Akbar II., the present Emperor, the lineal de- 
scendant of the House of Tamerlane and his illustrious suo 



144 INDIA, CHINA, ANT) JAPAN. 

cessors, are embraced -vTithin the waiis of his palace, and com- 
prise rather less than a square half mile. The Government 
allows fourteen lacs of rupees ($700,000) annually for the 
maintenance of himself, his family, and the princes attached 
to his Court — a large and hungry retinue, macy of whom 
cannot venture outside of the wails without running the risk 
of being seized for his debts. They are ail in debt, from the 
Emperor to his lowest menials, and the Government allow- 
ance is always conveyed to the Palace under a strong guard, 
to prevent its being forcibly carried off by the creditors. 
This pitiful farce of Eoyalty is all that remains of the Mogul 
Empire — once the most powerful and enlightened sovereignty 
in Asia. 

The modern City of Delhi is the latest of the name, and 
having been founded by Shah Jehan, is still called by the 
natives Shahjehanabad. There were several Delhis, one of 
the oldest of which is the city built by Toglukh, and called 
Toglukhabad, the ruins of which lie about fifteen miles to the 
south of the present city. Another city, now called Old 
Delhi, built during one of the succeeding reigns, is about two 
miles distant. It is still surrounded by lofty walls, with cir- 
cular stone bastions, and has several thousand inhabitants. 
But all of the country south of the Jumna, for an extent of 
more than ten miles in every direction, is strewed with the 
ruins of palaces, mosques, and tombs. Whenever the city 
was taken and desolated in tlie early wars, instead of rebuild- 
ing it, the inhabitants founded a new one in the vicinity ; and 
afterwards, whenever the caprice of an Emperor prompted 
h\vn to erect a new palace, the nobles, and after them the 
common people, gradually shifted their residences, until the 



RUINS OF THE OBSERVATORY. 145 

location of the city was quite changed ; and thus, for centu- 
ries, Delhi continued to be a migratory capital. For the last 
two centuries it has been stationary, and will now probably 
remain so. But the ruins of the former Delhis cover a much 
greater space than that occupied by the ruins of Thebes, and 
had they all belonged to one city, it would have been the 
greatest in the world. 

On the day after my arrival, Mr. Place drove me in his 
carriage to the Khuttub Minar, the pride and boast of Delhi, 
as the Taj is of Agra. It is eleven miles distant, in a south- 
westerly direction. This, again, was a day to be remembered. 
We left at an early hour, and without entering the city, drove 
along its wails, past the Cashmere and Lahore Gates. It was 
a balmy morning, with a pure, crystalline atmosphere, such as 
I had not seen for weeks. The air seemed to be more dry 
and bracing than at Agra, for though the temperature was 
lower, I felt the cold much less keenly. At a short distance 
from the city, we came upon the ruins of a magnificent obser- 
vatory. The most prominent object was a colossal gnomon, 
built of stone, and rising to the height of near forty feet. 
Around this was a circular plane, precisely parallel to that of 
the ecliptic, and nearly a hundred feet in diameter. There 
were also two circular buildings, with a double row of narrow 
slits, or embrasures, around them, and the remains of stone 
tables in the inside, the circumferences of v/hich were divided 
into degrees. These buildings were no doubt intended for ob- 
serving the rising and setting of stars, measuring their dis- 
tances from each other, and other similar processes. The ob- 
servatory could only have been used for astronomical observa- 
tions of a very simple character. 



146 INDIA, CHINA, AND J.U'AN. 

Beyond this all was ruin. The country was uneven and 
covered in all directions, as far as. the eye could reach, with 
masses of stone and brick, the remains of walls and arches, and 
the tombs of princes, saints and scholars who flourished during 
the Mogul dynasty. The tombs were large square buildings, 
surmounted with domes. Some were merely of brick and 
mortar, but others of sandstone and white marble, and adorned 
with very elegant gateways. Grass and bushes were growing 
out of the rifts of the domes, and the seeds of the peepul tree, 
taking root in the mortar, had in many places split asunder the 
strongest masses of masonry. During many miles of our jour- 
ney, there was scarcely a change in the melancholy panorama. 
Ruin succeeded ruin, and between and beyond them there were 
but perspectives of ruin in the distance. The habitations of 
men were few and scattered, and but little of the soil showed 
any appearance of cultivation. The wild vulture hovered sul- 
lenly over the waste, and the fox and jackal sneaked about the 
crumbling walls. That beautiful fragment of Persian poetry, 
recited by Mahmoud the Conqueror, as he entered Constanti- 
nople, came into my mind : •' The spider hath woven his web in 
the imperial palaces ; and the owl hath sung her watch-song on 
the towers of Afrasiab." 

About six miles from Delhi we came upon the splendid 
tomb of Sufdur Jung, a prince who was connected with the 
royal house of Oude. It resembles the Taj in design, but is 
smaller, and built of a mixture of sandstone and marble, the 
effect of which is very beautiful and pleasing. The present 
King of Oude has appointed a sum for its repair and preser- 
vation, but there are no signs, in the general air of neglect 
which pervades the place, of any money having been thus ap- 



THE KHUTTUB MINAR. 147 

plied. I was quite charmed with the beauty of Ihe architec- 
tural details, in this edifice ; the arched windows, the vaulted 
ceilings of the chambers, and the designs of the marble bal- 
conies, were among the finest things of the kind which I saw 
in India. 

From the top of the tomb we first saw the Khuttub Minar, 
and after five more miles of ruin, drew up in the court-yard of a 
caravanserai near its base. The unusual form of the Khuttub 
detracts from its height, when seen from a distance, but greaCy 
increases it on a nearer view, by exaggerating the perspectiv,~ 
Hence, unlike some towers which seem to shrink as you aj, 
proach them, the Khuttub, which at a few miles' distance re 
seir.bles an ordinary factory-chimney, swells to a sublime altitud( 
when you are in its vicinity. It is a round pillar, of 240 feei 
in height, the diameter at the base being 35 feet, but gradually 
diminishing to less than 10 feet at the top. It is divided inta 
five stories, the relative height of which decreases in the same 
ratio as the diameter of the shaft. Each story has a heavy 
cornice of the richest sculpture, surmounted by a low stone 
balustrade. The three lower stories are entirely of red sand- 
stone, fluted, or rather reeded with alternate convex and angu- 
lar divisions, and belted at short intervals by bands of Arabic 
inscriptions, sculptured in relief, and of colossal size. The two 
highest stories are mostly of white marble, without inscriptions, 
and deviate slightly from the diminishing slope of the pillar, 
whence it is generally supposed that they were added at a later 
period. Some English officers, thinking to improve the work, 
crowned it with a grotesque cupola, which was a ridiculous ex- 
crescence on the shaft, until Lord Harulr^e ordered it to be 
taken down. 



148 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAJ'AN. 

Such aio the dimensions and style of the renowned Khnt- 
tub, but they are very far from expressing the majesty of its 
appearance, or the rich and gorgeous sculpture with which it is 
adorned. As I stood a short distance from the base, my gaze 
travelling slowly from bottom to top, and from top to bottom, 
Mr. Place declared it to be the finest single tower in the world, 
and asked me whether I did not think so. I said, " Xo," for 
just then I had Giotto's Florentine Campanile and the Giralda 
of Seville in my mind, and could not venture to place it above 
them ; but the longer I looked, the more its beauty grew upon 
me, and after spending three or four hours in its vicinity, I no 
longer doubted. It is, beyond question, the finest shaft in the 
world. 

We mounted to the summit by a winding staircase of 378 
steps, which became so narrow, as the diameter of the shaft 
diminished, that some of my corpulent friends could never 
have reached the top. The view was very extensive, and on 
such a bright, warm day, very beautiful, in spite of its deso- 
lation. On all sides there was a brown, undulating waste, dot- 
ted with ruins, but enlivened by an occasional garden or wheat- 
field. Low, red hills in the south and west, a glimpse of a 
blue lake in the distance, the massive battlements of the de- 
serted City of Toglukh in the south-east, and the domes of 
Delhi in the north, made up the panorama. When the air is 
very clear, the crests of the Himalayas, two hundred miles 
distant, can be discerned on the horizon. 

There is a difference of opinion as to whether the Khut- 
tub is of Hindoo or Moslem origin. Nothing positive i? 
known concerninsr +^^ aate or design of its erection. Some 
suppose it to have bcfn a watch-tower, others a monument, 



UNCERTAINTY OF ITS ORIGIN. 149 

Others a minaret, others again a gigantic symbol of Shiva. 
Both the Hindoos and the Moslems claim it, the former alleg- 
ing that the Arabic inscriptions were subsequently added by 
the conquerors. A short distance to the north there is the 
base of a tower similar in design, but of much grander di- 
mensions, the building of which was relinquished after it had 
been raised about fifty feet from the ground. This, the Hindoos 
say, was commenced by the Moslems, in order to surpass the 
Khuttub, which they found impossible. Without entering into 
a discussion for which I am not prepared, I may venture to 
say that the three lowest stories appear to me to be of Hindoo 
construction, both from the singular manner in which the shaft 
is reeded, and from the absence of arches in the openings for 
air and light. The arch (which was first introduced into India 
by the Moslems) appears in the upper stories, and it is generally 
admitted that they were added at a later period. Some of the 
Arabic inscriptions refer to the repair of the shaft, and date from 
the reign of Feroze Shah, about four and a half centuries ago. 
The Khuttub stands in the midst of a wilderness of ruins. 
There are the arcades of what was once a splendid Hindoo 
temple, changed into the court-yard of a mosque which was 
begun on a magnificent scale, but never finished, and the con- 
flicting styles are mixed together in the most incongruous 
manner. A college of marble and sandstone, in the later 
Moorish style, stands on one side of it, and a few hundred 
paces in an opposite direction, lie the ruins — fancy such a thing, 
if you can — of the palace of Aladdin ! The genii have taken 
back their windows of ruby and pearl, the gold and ivory have 
disappeared, and there are now only a few shapeless chambers, 
tottering to their fall. The remains of the Hindoo templo 



150 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

show tlig,t it must have been one of the finest in this part of 
India. The arcades are supported on several hundred columns, 
scarcely any of which are similar. They are covered, from cap 
to pedestal, with elaborate sculpture, including figures of the 
gods, of dogs, horses, monkeys and elephants, of the chain and 
bell, the pomegranate, and other religious emblems. The 
domes at the corners "Of the quadrangles are not vaulted, but 
formed by fiat stones laid diagonally across and overlapping 
each other, as in the Cyclopean remains of Italy. In the court 
stands a pillar of iron about eighteen feet high, and called by 
the natives " Feroze Shah's Walking-Stick." It bears an in- 
scription in a very ancient character, which long puzzled the 
scholars, but was finally deciphered by Mr. Prinsep. The col- 
umn appears to have been set up in token of victory, by a king 
who flourished about a century before the Christian Era. 
There are others, similar to it, in other parts of India. 

There was not sufficient time to visit Toglukhabad — the 
ruins of which, indeed, are only remarkable for their massive 
masonry ; so, after peeping into Sir Theophilus Metcalf 's elegant 
country residence, which was made out of one of the old tombs, 
we drove back to Delhi, taking the tomb of the Emperor Hu- 
mayoon by the way. This lies to the south-east of the city, 
adjoining a walled palace or fortress, which is still inhabited. 
The tomb is on a grand scale, rising to the height of one hun- 
dred feet, from a noble terrace of solid masonry, but has a most 
wretched, forlorn air. The floors are covered with litter and 
filth, the marble screens broken and battered, the dome given 
to bats and owls, and the spacious garden has become a waste 
of weeds. From the terrace, I counted upwards of fifty simi- 
lar palaces of the dead, several of them, if not on a scale of 



NATIVE SAM PATCHES. 151 

equal grandeur, yet even superior in design and in the richnesa 
of their decoration. 

There was an old porter, who attended for the sake of a 
trifle, by way of backsheesh, and on our leaving, urged us to 
visit the tomb of Nizam-ud-deen. I was beginning to feel tired 
of so much decayed splendor, but my friend said that the place 
was really curious, and so we drove back about half a mile. 
Here there was a small native village — perhaps a remnant of 
one of the old Delhis— crowded in among the tombs. Nizam 
ud-deen had truly a splendid mausoleum, of white marble with 
gilded domes, and there was an inclosure of marble fretwork 
of great beauty, surrounding the tomb of a daughter of the 
present Emperor. It was a labyrinth of a place, with a dark, 
deep tank in the midst, surrounded by high walls on three sides, 
with a flight of steps leading down to the water, on the fourth 
side. While we were looking into it, three or four half naked 
boys made their appearance on the high roofs overhanging the 
tank, and offered to jump down, for a few annas apiece. I ac- 
cordingly agreed, hardly thinking they would dare such a thing, 
when three of them boldly sprang from the highest platform, 
about seventy feet above the water. The fearful picture they 
made in descending quite took away my breath, and there was 
a sound when they struck the surface, as if they had fallen upon 
stone. They soon rose again, and came scrambling up the 
steps to get their money, complaining, with chattering teeth, 
of the coldness of the water. 

In returning to the city, we passed around the walls of Old 
Delhi, which are upward of eighty feet high. I was anxious 
to see the interior, but it was then too late, and another oppor- 
tunity did not afterwards occur. Mr. Place, who had resided 



152 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

• 

in Delhi»for ten years, told me that he had never been inside 
the walls. 

Modern Delhi was the largest and most picturesque native 
city I had then seen. The houses are of brick and stucco, 
painted in gay colors, and very few of them less than two stories 
in height. They have tiled roofs, which gives the place, when 
seen from a minaret, a strong resemblance to Smyrna, and other 
large Turkish towns. It covers an extent of about two square 
miles, but is very compactly built, and the population is reck- 
oned at near 200,000 souls. Most of the European residents 
have their bungalows on the heights outside of the Cashmere 
Gate, and near the military cantonments. There is an aque- 
duct of hewn stone traversing the city, which supplies the in- 
habitants with drinking water, brought from a distance of sev- 
enty-five miles, the water of the Jumna being strongly impreg- 
nated with natron, and injurious to health. The palace, which 
is surrounded by a deep moat, has a massive gateway and bar- 
bican in the centre of its western front. An open space in- 
tervenes between it and the city, and exactly opposite the 
gateway begins the Chandnee Choke — the Broadway of Delhi, 
which runs directly through the centre of the city, to the 
Lahore Gate. It is a noble avenue, somewhat resembling a 
Parisian houlevard^ having a small aqueduct, fringed with trees, 
on each side of the main highway, and separating it from the 
paved sidewalks. The houses are made picturesque by their 
wooden galleries and balconies, and some of them are very 
pretty specimens of architecture. 

When the heat of the day has subsided, and the afternoon 
shadows are growing long and cool, all the natives of any 
standing or pretension repair to the Chandnee Choke. Then, 



THE CHANDNEE CHOKE. 153 

broad as it is, it can scarcely contain the gay throngs that parade 
up and down its whole extent. There are Princes of the Em- 
peror's Court, mounted on brilliantly caparisoned elephants; 
country Chiefs on horseback, with a fierce air, and weapons in 
abundance ; Hindoo Baboos, with the symbol of their -caste 
painted on their foreheads ; liackrees, drawn by bullocks, and 
resembling pagodas on wheels, behind whose tassels and dusty 
red curtains sit the discreet ladies of the land ; travelling mer 
chants, slowly pacing along on camels; Sikhs, with forked 
black beards; long-locked Affghans, with bright, treacherous 
eyes; and Persians, grave as the maxims of Saadi, besides a 
vast retinue on foot, exhibiting the most brilliant combinations 
of color in their garments. The ordinary dress is pure white, 
but here you see in addition, caps and scarfs of the most vivid 
shades of crimson, blue, green, yellow and orange, with a pro- 
fusion of gold fringe and spangles. The merchants sit cross- 
legged in their shops, looking out on the array, and chatting 
cheerfully with passing acquaintances, while from the balconies 
above, the Bayaderes, clad in their most attractive finery, play 
the part of sirens to the crowd below. 

Here, as in Egypt, only females of this class are allowed 
to show their faces unveiled, and one has no other authority 
for forming an opinion regarding the beauty of the sex. 
Among the many faces I saw while passing through the 
Chandnee Choke, there were but two which were really beau- 
tiful, while most of them were so coarse and repulsive that I 
should think there was little danger of their drawing many 
victims into their toils. But there was scarcely a house, the 
upper story of which was not occupied by these creatures. 
A native court in India, with its army of pensioned idlers, is 



154 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

a hot-bed for all forms of vice, and Delhi is only surpassed in 
this respect by Lucknow and Hyderabad. 

In addition to the mauufactuTe of shawls and scarfs, in 
which its artisans are only inferior to those of Cashmere and 
Umritsir, Delhi is celebrated for its jewelry. The gold and 
silver smiths produce articles of exquisite workmanship, and 
occasionally very fine jewels are to be met with. Those of a 
secondary value, such as agate, onyx, cornelian, topaz, car- 
buncle and moon-stone, are very plentiful, and may be had at 
a trifling rate. The bed of the Jumna abounds in beautiful 
cornelians, sards and agates. In rambling among the shops I 
saw several natives of Cashmere, who were exceedingly hand- 
some men, with skin as fair as a European's and soft brown hair. 
They belonged evidently to the pure Caucasian stock. A na- 
tive miniature painter showed me the portrait of a Cashmerian 
Bultana, which was a vision of perfect loveliness. The features 
were like those of a high-born English beauty, but with an en- 
chanting touch of Southern languor in the dark eye, the droop- 
ing, fringed lid, and the full, crimson lip. He had also a portrait 
of Tootee Beegum, a Sikh princess, whose style of beauty was 
thoroughly Oriental — a brilliant, passionate face, capable of ex- 
pressing the extremes of firmness and tenderness. The delicacy 
of touch and artistic truth of these native artists is extraordi- 
nary. I know of but few miniature painters in America who 
could equal them. In landscapes they are not so successful, 
for though the |)ictures are very laboriously finished, and fch aw 
a fair idea of perspective, they lack color and atmosphere. 

The Jumma (or Jooma) Musjeed at Delhi is a noble struc- 
ture, equalled only, as a mosque, by the Motee Musjeed at 
Agra. It is on a much larger scale than the latter. It stands 



THE JDMMA OF MUSJEED. 155 

in the middle of the city, at the meeting of four of the prin- 
cipal streets, and is raised on a grand platform of masonry, 
twenty feet high, with broad flights of steps leading up on 
each side. The material is sandstone and white marble, the 
three superb domes being built of both, disposed in vertical 
bands, or stripes. At a distance, when softened by the haze, 
they resemble huge balloons of striped silk, hovering over the 
city. We were allowed to walk rough-shod through the court- 
yard, and to climb one of the minarets, but two Hindoo pil- 
grims from Ajmere were ignominiously driven out, on attempt- 
ing to enter. We inquired the reason of this, and were told 
that the " sahib " had ordered it so, on account of recent 
fights which had occurred between the rival sects. The two 
religions, nevertheless, are blended in some degree among the 
low and ignorant classes, the shrines and sacred places of each 
being held in common reverence by them. The two Rajpoots 
whom we saw ejected, seemed very much mortified that they 
were not allowed to visit this sanctuary of the Mussulmen. 

A very curious illustration of Progress in India was fur- 
nished to me one day, during my sojourn with Mr. Place. 
We were dining together in his bungalow, when a wandering 
Hindoo minstrel came along with his mandolin, and request- 
ed permission to sit upon the verandah and play for us. I 
was desirous of hearing some of the Indian airs, and my host 
therefore ordered him to perform during dinner. He tuned 
the wires of his mandolin, extemporized a prelude which had 
some very familiar passages, and to my complete astonishment, 
began singing : " Get out of the way, Old Dan Tucker ! " 
The old man seemed to enjoy my surprise, and followed up hia 
performance with " Oh, Susanna ! " " Buffalo Gals," and nther 



156 , IXDIA, CHISA. A2»D JAPA^^ 

choice fitliiopian melodies, all of which he sang with admira- 
ble spirit and correctness. I addressed him in English, bnt 
fonnd that he did not understand a word of the language, and 
had no conception of the nature of the songs he had given us. 
He had heard some young English officers singing them at 
Madras, and was indebted entirely to his memory for both the 
melodies and words. It was vain to ask him for his native 
Indian airs : he was fescinated with the spirit of our national 
music, and sang with a grin of delight which was very amusing. 
As a climax of skill, he closed with - Malhrook se va-t-en 
guerre^ '' but his pronunciation of French was not quite so 
successful I had heard Spanish boatmen on the Isthmus of 
Panama singing '' Carry me back to ole Yirginny,*' and Arab 
boys in the streets of Alexandria humming *' Lucy Long," but 
I was hardly prepared to hear the same airs from the lips 
of a Hindoo, in the capital of the Great Mogul 

It only remains for me to describe my visit to the Empe- 
ror's Palace. Mr. Place having previously sent a messenger 
to annotincc the visit, we found two chobdars (beadles) with 
silver maces, waiting for us outside of the great gate. We 
were allowed to drive through, the sentinels presenting arms, 
into a email cotirt, through a second bastioned gateway, and 
down a stately, vaulted passage, to a large, open quadrangle, 
where we dismounted and proceeded on foot The vaulted 
gallery must have once been an imposing prelude to the splen- 
dors of the palace, but it is now dirty and dilapidated, and the 
quadrangle into which it ushers the visitor resembles a great 
barn-yard, filled with tattered grooms, lean horses and mangy 
elephants. The buildings surrounding it were heavy masses 
of iM-ick tLod sandstone, and were rapidly fall i ng into ruin. 



AN ELYSIUM ON EARTH. 167 

But there was another gate before us, and I hastened through 
it, hoping to find something which would repay the promise of 
the magnificent exterior. There was, indeed, the Palace of 
Shah Jehau, but in what condition ! Porticoes of marble, 
spoiled by dust and whitewash, exquisite mosaics with all the 
precious stones gouged out, gilded domes glittering over courts 
heaped with filth, and populated with a retinue of beggarly 
menials. This was all that was left of the Empire of Tamer- 
lane and Akbar — a miserable life-in-death, which was far more 
melancholy than complete ruin. 

The only parts of the palace I was allowed to see were the 
diwan, the throne-hall and fbe mosque — all of which bear a 
general resemblance to the palace of Akbar, at Agra, but are 
more wantonly despoiled. The diwan is an elegant arcade, 
formed by three rows of arches, with a pavilion of the purest 
marble in the centre, inlaid with gold and precious stones. 
Over this pavilion is the inscription in Persian, which Moore 
Das introduced in his " Light of the Harem," — " If there be 
an Elysium on Earth, it is here — it is here." What an Elysi- 
um at present ! 

The thione-hall is a square canopy resting on massive 
square pillars. It is constructed entirely of white marble, 
very highly polished, the pillars being inlaid with cornelian 
and bloodstone, and the ceiling richly gilded. In the centre 
of this once stood the famous peacock throne, which has re- 
cently been removed, and we were unable to get a sight of it. 
By persevering, however, we succeeded in seeing the crystal 
throne of the Great Mogul, which is four feet in diameter by 
two in height, and the largest piece of rock crystal known to 
exist. The bases of the pillars in this sj)lendid hall were painted 



168 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

witii roSes and tulips, the colors of wliicli were very well pre- 
served. The moscjiie — an imitation of that in the palace at 
Agi-a — did not appear to have heard a prayer for years. 

Akbar II. has reigned in this little dominion since 1805, 
and is now upward of eighty years of age. He was the last 
of the line, but having four sons, the succession will be contin- 
ued. He devotes his time to literature, amusements and sen- 
suality. The Mussulmen speak highly of his literary acquire- 
ments, and his poems in the Persian language are said by those 
who have read them to possess considerable merit. There is a 
Court newspaper, entitled The Lamp of News, published 
within the palace, but its columns are entirely devoted to the 
gossip of the city, and private scandal. Until recently the law 
administered within the palace bore a resemblance to the 
bloody rule of former days. Persons who had incurred the 
royal displeasure had their hands, ears or noses cut off, and 
were then thrust out of the gates. Finally the English Resi- 
dent at the Court hinted to his Majesty that these things were 
very disagreeable and ought to cease. " What ! " said the de- 
scendant of Tamerlane ; " am I not King in my own palace ? " 
"Undoubtedly," blandly replied the Resident; "your High- 
ness is the Conqueror of the "World and the Protector of 
Princes; but such a course is not pleasing to the Governor- 
Greneral, and it would be a great evil to the world if the friend- 
ship of two such mighty and illustrious Sovereigns were to be 
ijiterrupted ! " The forms of respect to the phantom of the 
old authority being thus preserved, the Emperor instituted a 
milder regimen. 

We finished our visit by a walk in the gardens. Here, the 
old trees, rankly overrun with parasitic plants, with an under- 



VOICES OF THE SULTANAS. 159 

growtli of wild and unpruned rose-buslies, afforded a pleasant 
relief to the decay of the imperial halls. But the garden-pa- 
vilions were tumbling down, the pools and fountain-basins 
were covered with a thick green scum, and rank weeds grew in 
all the walks. We lingered for some time under the windows 
of the Zenana^ listening to the clatter of female voices, and 
trying to draw therefrom some inference as to the features of 
the Sultanas. Alas ! the tones were all too shrill to have come 
from beautiful lips. On our way out, several sentinels belong- 
ing to the Emperor's boy-corps stood at the interior gates and 
made very respectful salaams as we passed. The poor little 
half-starved, half-clothed wretches are obliged to exercise daily, 
and often four hours at a time. Most of the male inmates of 
the place were perched upon the roofs, engaged in flying flocks 
of pigeons, which they made to advance or recede, separate 
and unite again, by uttering a peculiar cry and waving a long 
rod with a little flag on the end of it. At the gate we dis- 
missed the chobdars with a gratuity, and I went home. 

" The spider hath woven his wel in the imperial palaces." 



CHAPTER XII 

JOURNEY IN A PALANQUIN. 

Departiire for the Himalayas — " Laying a Dawk " — Last View of Delhi— A Eainy 
Kight— Quarters at Meerut— The Dawk Agent— Hindoo Punctuality— Meerut— • 
Palanqnin Travelling— Tricks of the Bearers— Arrival at Eoorkhee— Adventures iu 
Search of a Breakfast— First View of the Himalayas— A Welcome Invitation— Eoor- 
khee— The Ganges Canal— Its Cost and Dimensions— Method of Irrigation— The 
Government and the People— Aqueduct over the Selanee Eiver — Apathy of the 
Natives. 

At the close of my stay in Delhi, I found that precisely 
half the time which I had allotted for my transit through In- 
dia had expired, and but a single month remained. However, 
although nearly a thousand miles from Calcutta, I determined 
to push on to the Himalayas, and get a glimpse of the highest 
mountain in the world. Once on the Grand Trunk Road, on 
my return, I could depend on making a hundred miles a day by 
the garree-dawk^ without excessive fatigue, and there were 
few points of interest, except Allahabad and Benares, to detain 
me on the way to Calcutta. I therefore made arrangements 
— " laid a dawk " is the Indian expression — for a trip to Lan- 
dowr, the highest point in the Himalayas, which can be conve- 



LAST VIEW or DELHI. 161 

niently reached during the winter season, by way of Roorkhee 
and Hurdwar. The distance of Landowr from Delhi is nearly 
two hundred miles, and there is no carriage dawk beyond 
Meerut, fifty miles from the latter city. I w^as therefore 
obliged to travel by palkee dawk, or palanquin. A statement 
was drawn up of the different places I intended to visit, with 
the length of my stay at each, and a messenger dispatched to 
summon the bearers to be in readiness at the proper time, at 
the different stations along the road. Twelve days were al- 
lowed for the trip to Landowr and back to Meerut. The ex- 
penses of the dawk, including the hire of the palanquin, 
amounted to nearly $60. 

The garree, or carriage, for Meerut called for me on Wed- 
nesday afternoon, the 26th of January, and I took leave of Mr. 
Place, after having been most hospitably entertained by him 
for four days. The weather was dark, raw and lowering, and 
I had not crossed the tedious bridge over the Jumna, before 
the rain began to fall. My last view of Delhi was dull and 
misty; the palace of Shah Jehan loomed up more grandly 
than ever, but the domes and minarets of the Jumma Mus- 
jeed, which need to be touched with sunshine, on a background 
of blue sky, lost half their airy grace. I had a comfortable 
cart, with a mattress on the bottom, and disposed my car- 
pet-bags in such a way as to make it as easy as an arm-chair. 
The rain increased, however, the roads became wet and slip- 
pery, and the plain had a dull November look, which was very 
dreary. I was delayed by the obstinacy of the horses, who, 
finding the cart a little heavier than usual, did their best to 
disable it. Night soon came on, the rain rattled on the roof, 
and drawing my quilt around me, I lay down and slept until 



162 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

aroused by the driver, asking where he should take me, for we 
had reached Meerut. I directed him to go to the ^^ punch 
gliur'''' (punch house), as a hotel is termed, in this part of 
India. There I found consummars, chokedars, and the other 
varieties of servants usually attached to a bungalow, but no 
one who spoke English. I did my best to get a note conveyed 
to the person who was to furnish me with a palanquin and 
bearers the next morning, but found the thing quite impossible. 

I arose betimes, and set out to find the agent, for seven 
o'clock was the time appointed for starting. After endless 
questions and a walk of three miles, I was finally directed to a 
mean house, in the door of which stood one of the meanest 
individuals in appearance, that I ever beheld. He was a half- 
caste, of a dirty complexion, unwashed, pitted with the smalt- 
pox, limping, and dressed in a vile cloak covered with grease 
md patches. He informed me that the bearers were ready, 
iiud pointed to the palanquin, which was standing in the veran- 
dah. The man's appearance made me suspicious, and though 
there was really a palanquin, I feared that before travelling far, 
I should find it to be a little buggy. He promised to send it 
to the hotel, whither I hastened, expecting to find breakfast 
ready, as I had ordered. Yain hope ! There is no equiva- 
lent for " punctuality " in the Hindostanee tongue. I waited 
an hour; the palanquin arrived; I stormed in English, for, 
unfortunately, I knew no anathemas in their language, but the 
cooks were miracles of calmness and deliberation. When 
breakfast finally came, I was obliged to eat a few mouthfuls 
hurriedly and depart, lest T should give the bearers along the 
road a chance to claim demurrage. 

Meerut resembles the other Indian cantonments in most 



PALANQUIN TRAVELLING. 163 

respects. It has a number of handsome bungalows, besides a 
church with a very ambitious spire. Owing to an abundance 
of good water, its gardens and orchards are mucli more luxu- 
riant than those of Agra and Delhi. It must be both an agree- 
abe and healthy place of residence. The sky was clear, after 
the rain of the previous day, and the air delightfully cool and 
bracing, though colder than I desired. I rode with the palan- 
quin windows open, and found that by propping myself against 
a carpet-bag, I could get a tolerable view of the country on 
both sides. There was little variety in the scenery, as I was 
still on the great Plain of Hindostan. I noticed, however, 
some change in the vegetation ; the tamarind and taree-palm 
were but rarely to be seen ; the peepul and saul were the prin- 
cipal trees. The wheat was much more backward than in the 
warmer plains about Agra. 

I had eight bearers, four of whom only carried the palan- 
quin at one time. They relieved each other every half-mile, 
and all of them gave place to a new set, at the end of the stage, 
which varied from eight to ten miles. There was, besides, a 
mussalchee, or torch-bearer, who, during the day, carries the 
superfluous garments of the bearers, and demands backsheesh 
when they are changed. The amount given is four annas (12^ 
cents), to each set of bearers. They usually average about 
four miles an hour on good roads, carrying the palanquin along 
on a slow, sliding trot, every step of which they accompany 
with a grunt. I do not know a more disagreeable method of 
travelling. It is as necessary to preserve a nice equilibrium as 
in a Turkish caique, and as you lie at full length in a narrow 
box, you cannot turn your cramped limbs without thrusting 
your body too far on one side or the other. The jolting 



164 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

motion of the palanquin is unpleasant, and the measured grunxa 
of the bearers give you the idea that they are about to drop 
you, through fatigue, while nothing can be more annoying than 
their constant stoppage to shift the pole from one shoulder to 
another. Sometimes they groan out, ^^ juldee jao.f'' (go 
quickly !) and when they meet any body in the road, they cry : 
" Take care ! we have a great Lord inside ! " 

Thus I jogged on all day, through a tame and monotonous 
country. I looked continually to the north, for a glimpse of 
the Himalayas, and once thought I saw some sharp white peaks, 
but they gradually moved together and changed their forms. 
Toward evening my bearers stopped at a village, which they 
said was the end of their chokee (stage), but that the new 
bearers, who ought to have been in waiting, had gone on to 
another village, about a mile distant. To avoid the delay of 
waiting their return, they offered to take me on to the village 
for an additional backsheesh ; and I consented. When I arri- 
ved, however, and found the new bearers in readiness, I asked 
them : " Is this the beginning of your chokee^ or the village 
behind us ? " " This is the place," they all exclaimed ; where- 
upon the others were quite abashed at finding their trickery 
exposed, and their expected backsheesh lost. At sunset I 
passed through Mozuffernuggur, a large town about thirty-six 
miles from Meerut. At the next chokee beyond it, I was 
delayed an hour and a half by the non-appearance of the bear- 
ers. My men began to shout, and the cries were taken up by 
one person and another, till they seemed to radiate through 
the whole country, and fill the air, far and near. The men 
were at last gathered together, and we went on by torch-light. 
The night was clear and cold, and I lay muffled up, cramped 



ADVENTURES IN SEARCH OF A BREAKFAST. 165 

iiiid shivering, until we arrived at tlie station of Roorkheo, 
three hours past midnight. 

There was a Grovernment bungalow, to which the bearers 
conveyed me, awoke the sleepy chokedar, kindled a cocoa-nut 
lamp, and left me. I removed every thing from the palanquin 
to the room, fastened the doors, and then lay down upon the 
charpoy (bedstead), where I slept until morning. On awaking, 
my first sensation was that of hunger, for I had fasted twenty- 
four hours, so I summoned the chokedar, and ordered him to 
get breakfast for me. " Bohui achcha^'' (very well,) said he, 
and then went on to make some statement, the most prominent 
words of which were ^'- gliurrech purwar^ I asked him for 
tea, for eggs, for fowls, but though he always replied " very 
well," there was sure to follow something about " ghurreeb 
purwar." At last I decided that these words referred to some 
necessary article, without which he could not provide break- 
fast. I thought of the Arabic words gurra^ a gourd, and 
geerheh, a water-skin, and it was quite plain that " ghurreeb 
purwar" must mean either a tea-kettle or a frying pan. 
" Well," said I, when he had repeated the words for the twen- 
tieth time, " I have no ghurreeb purwar ; you must get one. 
Go and borrow one from the Sahibs ! " The man stared at me 
in a wild way, and went off, but not to provide breakfast. I 
learned afterwards that " ghurreeb purwar " was a title ad- 
dressed to myself, and means " Protector of the Poor." It is 
addressed to all Europeans in these parts, and no exclusive 
honor is meant thereby, as Bishop Heber supposed, when he 
wrote in his Journal, that the people, on account of his kindness 
to them, had bestowed upon him the title of " Protestor of 
the Poor," 



166 . INDIA, CniNA, AND JAPAN. 

While anxiously waiting for breakfast, I amused myself 
by reading a list of tbe books in the Library of the Ganges 
Canal at Roorkhee, which hung upon the wall. Who would 
have guessed that an humble author, in scrambling about the 
world, should find one of his works in the furthest corner of 
India, at the very foot of the Himalayas ? Yet so it was ; and 
the fact made the place less inhospitable, in spite of my 
hunger. Where my words have already been, I thought, shall 
not my body find nourishment ? and while trying to reason 
myself into the impression that there was a breakfast some- 
where in Roorkhee, which it was destined that I should eat, I 
walked out upon the verandah. 

It was about eight in the morning : an atmosphere of 
crystal, and not a cloud in the sky. Yet something white and 
shining glimmered through the loose foliage of some trees on 
my right hand. My heart came into my mouth with the sud- 
den bound it gave, when, after plunging through the trees like 
one mad, tumbling into a ditch on the other side, and scramb- 
ling up a great pile of dirt, I saw the Himalayas before me I 
Unobscured by a single cloud or a speck of vapor, there 
stood revealed the whole mountain region, from the low range 
of the Siwalik Hills, about twenty miles distant, to the lofti- 
est pinnacles of eternal snow, which look down on China and 
Thibet. The highest range, though much more than a hundred 
miles distant, as the crow flies, rose as far into the sky as the 
Alps at forty miles, and with every glacier and chasm and 
spire of untrodden snow as clearly defined. Their true mag- 
nitude, therefore, was not fully apparent, because the eye 
refused to credit the intervening distance. But the exquisite 
loveliness of the shadows painted by the morning on those 



FIRST VIEW OF THE HIMALAYAS. 167 

enormous wastes of snow, and tlie bold yet beautiful outlines 
of the topmost cones, soaring to a region of perpetual silence 
and death, far surpassed any distant view of the Alps or any 
other mountain chain I ever saw. As seen from Roorkhee, 
the Himalayas present the appearance of three distinct ranges. 
The first, the Siwalik Hills, are not more than two thousand 
feet in height ; the second, or Sub-Himalayas, rise to eight or 
nine thousand, while the loftiest peaks of the snowy range, 
visible from this point, are 25,000 feet above the sea. Far in 
the north-west was the Chore, an isolated peak, which is almost 
precisely the height of Mont Blanc, but seemed a very pigmy 
in comparison with the white cones beyond it. 

I had a letter to Col. Cautley, the Superintendent of the 
Ganges Canal, and hastened to deliver it in time to share his 
breakfast. He was not in Roorkhee, as it happened ; but I 
learned from the servant that there was a " sahib " living in 
the house, and sent the letter in to him. The " sahib " did 
just what I had hoped, that is, he came out and asked me in to 
breakfast with him — which I was but too ready to do. The 
letter was forwarded to Capt. Goodwyn, the next in command, 
and before the meal was concluded I received a kind note from 
that officer, offering me a room in his house. 

Roorkhee has suddenly risen into note from being the head- 
quarters of the Engineers employed on the Ganges Canal. A 
large workshop is in operation, and the Government has just 
established a College for educating Civil Engineers. The 
Europeans are comparatively few, and the native town is in- 
habited almost entirely by the workmen employed on the 
Canal. It is a pleasant, healthy place, scattered over a 
rising ground, overlooking the Valley of the Ganges, and en- 



168 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

joys one of the finest prospects of the Himalayas to be had 
from any part of the plains. A very handsome Gothic Church, 
(desig^^ed by Mr. Price, the gentleman to whom I was in- 
debted for a breakfast) had been recently erected, and this, 
with the open, turfy common in front of the town, and the 
absence of tropical trees, reminded me strongly of England. 

The Ganges Canal is one of the grandest undertakings 
of the present day. It has been constructed under the direc- 
tion and at the expense of the Government, mainly for the 
purpose of irrigating the level, fertile tracts between the 
Ganges and Jumna, but also to afford the means of transport- 
ing the productions of the country to the head of navigation 
on the former river, at Cawnpore. The labor of more than 
ten years had been expended on it at the time of my visit, and 
four or five years more were considered necessary to complete 
it.* It will be eighty feet wide, varying in depth according 
to the season, but probably averaging eight feet, and, including 
its numerous branches, will have an extent of eight hundred 
miles ! It taps the Ganges at Hurdwar (eighteen miles to the 
north-west of Roorkh), and returns to it again at Cawnpor, a 
distance of more than four hundred miles. The total cost, when 
completed, will not fall much short of £2,000,000, but it is 
expected to yield a return of £500,000 annually. This cal- 
culation is based on the success of the East and West Jumna 
Canals, which are comparatively on a small scale. The former 
of these was finished in 1825, since when it has paid all the 
expense of construction, together with an annual interest of 5 

* The water was let into the main trunk of the Ganges Canal in 
the summer of 1854, and the work, po far as it has gone into operation, 
is perfectly sncee.ssful. 



SYSTEM OF IKRIGATION. 16£ 

per cent, thereupon, and £320,000 clear profit. The latter, 
finished a few years since, has paid the cost and interest, with 
£30,000 profit. 

The use of the water for irrigation is not obligatory upon 
the inhabitants, but they are generally quite willing to avail 
themselves of it. There are three ways in which it is fur- 
nished to them : First, by villages or companies of cultivators 
contracting for as much as they want; secondly, by a fixed rate 
per acre, according to the kind of grain, rice being the most 
expensive and cotton the cheapest; and thirdly, by renting 
an outlet of a certain fixed dimension, at so much per year. 
Along the Jumna Canals the people do not wait, as formerly, to 
see whether the crops will be likely to succeed without irri- 
gation, but employ it in all seasons, and are thereby assured 
of a constant return for their labor. The Ganges Canal will 
be of vast importance in increasing the amount of grain pro- 
duced in Hindostan, the design of the Government ,being to 
render famine impossible. It is to be hoped that such a 
dreadful spectacle as the famine of 1838, when hundreds of 
thousands perished from want, will never again be witnessed 
in India. That such things have happened is the natural re- 
sult of the tenure by which land is held and cultivated. The 
Government is the proprietor, and the zemindars^ or tenants, 
pay 75 per cent, of the assessed value of the products. The 
land is sub-let by the zemindars to the ryots, or laborers, and 
these, the poor and ignorant millions of India, of course gain 
little or nothing beyond a bare subsistence. If the crops fail, 
they have nothing at all. The Ganges Canal will therefore, to 
a certain extent, prevent famine, by assuring perennial crops. 
It will enrich the Government, because, in addition to the sale 



170 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

of tllfe water, it will increase the rent of the lands as they 
become more productive, but it will very slightly mitigate the 
condition of the ryots. 

The greatest modern work in India is the Canal Aqueduct 
over the Selanee Kiver, at Roorkhee. It is entirely constructed 
of brick, and, including the abutments, is about a quarter of a 
mile in length, by a hundred and eighty feet in breadth. 
There are sixteen arches, of about seventy feet span, and 
rising twenty feet above the river, the foundations of the 
piers being sunk twenty feet below the bed. The arches are 
four feet thick, in order to support the immense pressure of 
such a body of water. Hundreds of workmen were employed 
on the structure, and a small railroad had been laid down for 
bringing the materials. A locomotive was imported from 
England, but, through the neglect of the native firemen, soon 
became a wreck. During the short time it was in operation a 
great number of accidents occurred. It was found almost 
impossible to keep the natives off the track. Their stupidity 
in this respect is astonishing. If you have a hard heart you 
may run over as many as you like in a morning's ride, for they 
will assuredly not get out of your way unless you force them 
to it 



CHAPTER XIII. 

HURDWAR AND THE GANGES. 

Native "Workmen at Eoorkhee — Their "Wages — Departure for Hurdwar — Afternoon 
View of the Himalayas — Peaks visible from Eoorkhee — Jungle-grass — Jowalapore 
— Approach to the Siwalik Hills — First View of the Ganges — Ganges Canal — Pre- 
diction of the Brahmins — An Arrival— The Holy City of Hurdwar— Its Annual 
Fair — Appearance of the Streets — The Bazaar — A Himalayan Landscape — ^Travel in 
the Jungle — ^A Conflagration — The Jungle by Torch-Light — Arrival at Dehra. 

Before leaving Roorkliee I paid a visit to tlie "worksliops, 
wliere I was much struck with the skill and aptness of the 
natives employed. The shops are instituted for the purpose 
of constructing the implements used on the Canal works. 
The machinery is driven by steam and conducted entirely by 
natives under European superintendence. One of the depart- 
ments is devoted to the construction of mathematical instru- 
ments, which are fully equal to those of English manufacture. 
" The natives," to use the words of the Superintendent, 
" learn in one sixth of the time which an English workman 
would require." Their imitative talent is wonderful, but they 
totally lack invention. This makes them a people easily im- 
proved, as they are anxious to learn, but never knowing more 
than is taught them, never using their knowledge as a lamp to 
explore the unknown fields of science or art. These workmen 



172 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

are paid from four to eiglit rupees a month, according to their 
skill, but the ordinary laborers on the Canal, though hired at 
four ($2), do not, owing to their indolence, generally receive 
more than two rupees per month, out of which they find them- 
selves. It is said that one rupee (fifty cents,) monthly, covers 
all their necessary expenses. 

After two days at Roorkhee, I summoned the bearers to 
be in readiness at sunrise, the next morning. Capt. Goodwyn 
was kind enough to see that all the arrangements were com- 
plete, besides ordering me an early breakfast, and his amiable 
lady provided me with a tiffin, which I was to eat in Col. 
Cautley's bungalow at Hurdwar. The morning was bright and 
cold, and as I was borne down the bank to the Selanee River, 
I noticed that a light rime lay upon the grass. The bearers 
shivered as they waded through the chill water, though their 
bare legs were nearly as tough and leathery as an elephant's. 
I opened the palanquin so that I might look on the Hima- 
layas, as I lay, but their cold morning gleam was not so beau- 
tiful as the warm red flush which had lain on them during 
the previous afternoon and evening. I had accompanied my 
hosts to the cricket-ground, where there was a match between 
the military and the civilians. The game was explained to 
me, and politeness required that I should take an interest in 
its progress ; but my whole soul had gone off" to the Himalayas, 
and I could see or think of nothing else. I was most struck 
with their exquisite beauty of form and coloring. The faint- 
est pink of the sea-shell slept upon the steeps of snow, and 
their tremendous gulfs and chasms were filled with pale-blue 
shadows, so delicately pencilled that I can only compare them 
to the finest pamting on ivory. When I reflected that each of 



THE HIMALAYAS, FROM ROORKHEE. 173 

those gentle touches of blue was a tremendous gorge, " where 
darkness dwells all day ; " that each break in the harmonious 
flow of the outline on the sky — like the break in a cadence of 
music, making it sweeter for the pause — was a frightful pre- 
cipice, thousands of feet in depth and inaccessible to human 
foot, I was overpowered by the awful sublimity of the picture 
But when their color grew rosy and lambent in the sunset, I 
could think of nothing but the divine beauty which beamed 
through them, and wonder whether they resembled the moun- 
tains which we shall see in the glorified landscapes of the 
future world. 

The snowy chain visible from Roorkhee extends from 
Nepaul to the borders of Cashmere, and includes some of 
the highest peaks, though not the very highest, in the Hima- 
layas. In front rise the Gungootree and Jumnootree, the 
sources of the Jumna and Ganges, about 25,000 feet high ; 
further to the eastward, Buddhreenath, a little lower ; and in 
the distant north-east, the summit of Nundidevi, which has an 
altitude of nearly 26,000. Dwalagheri, Chumalari, and a 
third peak which, according to recent measurem^ents, is fully 
30,000 feet above the sea, are further to the eastward. There 
is generally much cloud and mist upon them during the winter 
season, and at Eoorkhee they told me there had not been so 
fine a view of them for two months, as on the morning of my 
arrival. 

After crossing the Selanee River, I was carried on through 
a low tract, at first covered only with long jungle grass, ten 
feet high, but afterward studded with picturesque topes, or 
groves, of mango and peepul trees. Being sheltered by the 
Siwalik Hills, and inundated by the overflow of the Ganges, 



174 . INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

the vegetation was very luxuriant, and had more of a tropical 
character than upon the plains. In the dense jungles along 
the Ganges, about fifteen miles from Roorkhee, there is an 
abundance of tigers, leopards and wild elephants. The deer, 
antelope and wild boar are also frequent. On my way to 
Hurdwar I passed through Jowalapore, a queer old town which 
appeared to have some share in the sanctity of the neighboring 
city. I sat up in the palanquin to have a better view of the place 
and people, as I was borne through its tortuous streets. There 
were a number of temples and caravanserais, and the roofs of 
the houses were tenanted by sacred apes, whose posteriors were 
painted of a bright crimson color. The inhabitants looked 
at me with curiosity, and some of them made very respectful 
salaams. There was a bazaar and market in full operation, 
which were almost an exact counterpart of those of the 
smaller Egyptian towns. Among the crowd I noticed two 
handsome, fair-skinned Cashmerians. 

The road now approached the Siwalik Hills, which were 
steep and covered with jungle to the summit. The gorge 
through which the Ganges forces its way at Hurdwar made 
an abrupt gap in their chain, revealing a striking view of the 
second or Sub-Himalayas, which now completely hid the 
snowy peaks. It was nearly noon by this time, and the day 
was warm and summer-like. The bearers threaded the shade 
of the mango topes, crossed the canal, passed, without enter- 
ing, the town of Khunkhul, and finally set me down at Col. 
Cautley's bungalow, at Myapore. This is a little village 
about half a mile from Hurdwar, at the point where the 
canal leaves the Ganges. The bungalow— a thatched cottage, 
pleasantly embowered ir trees — was comfortably furnished, 



FIRST VIEW OF THE GANGES. 175 

tliougli untenanted. I took possession for the time; tlie 
servant set about making tea for me, and sent word for the 
new bearers to be ready in two hours. 

Meanwhile I strolled out to see the head of the canal. In 
ten minutes I stood on the lofty banks of the Ganges, looking 
down on his clear blue stream. The gorge lay open before 
me ; the hills rose on either hand covered with a wilderness 
of jungle ; the white pinnacles of the temples of Hurdwar 
shone .over the top of a belt of trees ; the sacred ghauts led 
down to the water ; but beyond all, crowning the huge blue 
bulk of the Sub-Himalayas, towered the snowy cone of Gun- 
gootree. It was an impressive scene. Here was the river 
beneath my feet ; there one of his most sacred cities ; and in 
the remote distance the snows wherein he is cradled. I went 
down the bank, and there, at the last gate of the Himalayas, 
where they let him out upon the plain of Hindostan, drank 
of the Holy Hiver. 

The dam across the Ganges at the head of the Canal was 
of course postponed until the remainder of the work should 
be finished, but the abutments and a regulating bridge of red 
sandstone were already completed. The canal was expected 
to take away nine tenths of the river at this place — a pros- 
pect which spread terror among the Brahmins. They de- 
clared that the goddess Gangajee had announced to them' in 
a vision, that she would never lie quietly in any other than 
her accustomed bed. If the English turned her out of it, 
she might be forced to go a few miles, but she would assur- 
edly break loose and return. The Brahmins, therefore, pre- 
dicted the total failure of the Canal. The removal of so 
much water will be a disadvantage to those who inhabit the 



176 



banks, i)ut Col. Cautley supposes that the loss will be sup« 
plied by springs in the river-bed. 

"While I was preparing to leave, a garree drove up, out 
of which descended a ruddy, powerful man, a lady and two 
fat and rosy children. The gentleman, who had charge of 
the operations at Mapyore, immediately addressed me in the 
most cordial manner. He had just brought his family down 
from Landowr in the Himalayas, to spend a few days, and 
I learned from him that the snows were fast melting. He 
had been five years in America, and professed himself de- 
lighted to meet a citizen of that country. I would willingly 
have prolonged my stay, but the bearers were waiting, so we 
shook hands and I was carried on to Hurdwar. 

This is one of the most curious cities in India. It lies on 
the western bank of the Granges, exactly in the gorge formed 
by the Siwalik Hills. There is but one principal street, 
running parallel to the water, and crossed by others so steep 
as to resemble staircases. Broad stone ghauts descend to 
the river, to allow the pilgrims facility of bathing. Between 
them, upon platforms of masonry of various heights, are 
temples to the Hindoo gods, principally to Ganeish and 
Shiva. The emblem of the latter divinity, the lingam, or 
symbol of the Phallic worship, is seen on all sides. Its sig- 
nification, however, would never be guessed by a stranger, 
nor is there any thing indecent in the ceremonies with which 
it is worshipped. The temples are from twenty to fifty feet 
high — none, I think, of greater altitude — and generally built 
of gray sandstone. There is great similarity in their design, 
which is a massive square shrine, surmounted by a four-sided 
or circular spire, curving gradually to a point, so that the 



THE HOLY CITY OP IIURDWAR. 177 

outline of each side resembles a paraLola. All parts of the 
building are covered with grotesque but elaborate ornaments 
and many of the spires are composed of a mass of smaller 
ones, overlapping each other like scales, so that at a distance 
they resemble slender pine-apples, of colossal size. There 
are fifty or sixty temples in and about the city, some of them 
being perched on the summit of cliffs rising above it. Most 
of them are whitewashed, and have a new and glaring ap- 
pearance ; but there are others, enclosed in large courtyards, 
which are very black and venerable, and seem to be regarded 
with more than usual reverence. I could see lamps burning 
before the idols, in the gloomy interiors, but was not allowed 
to enter. There is a great annual mela^ or fair, held at 
Hurdwar, which is sometimes attended by a million and a 
half of persons. I believe there are never less than five or 
six hundred thousand present. The natives flock from all 
parts of Hindostan and Bengal, from the Deccan, the Punjab, 
from Cashmere, Affghanistan, Tartary and Thibet, some as re- 
ligious devotees, some as worldly tradesmen. For miles around 
the place it is one immense encampment, and all the races, 
faces, costumes, customs and languages of the East, from Persia 
to Siam, from Ceylon to Siberia, are represented. Buying and 
selling, praying and bathing, commercial fleecing and holy 
hair-cutting, and all kinds of religious and secular swindling, 
are in full operation ; and Hurdwar, which is at other times 
a very quiet, lonely, half-deserted, out-of-the-way nook, is then 
a metropolis, rivalling London in its tumult. Some of the 
missionaries usually attend on such occasions, in the hope of 
snatching brands from the burning, but tLe fires are generally 



8* 



178 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

BO hot that they do little more than scorch their fingers for 
their pains. 

As I passed slowly through the streets, I was much enter- 
tained b}' the picturesque and filthy appearance of the town. 
Its holiness was apparent at a glance. It reminded me of 
one of those naked faheers^ covered with dirt and asheR, who 
by gazing steadfastly upon their navels, attain the beatitude 
of saints. The streets were narrow, very dirty and enclosed 
by high black houses. Blacker and more dirty were the 
temples. On the low, thatched verandahs in front of the 
shops, sat groups of sacred monkeys, with painted posteriors, 
like those of Jowalapore. They were silent and contempla- 
tive, but the sacred bulls, who blocked up the streets below 
them, exhibited a cool impudence, which nothing but a human 
being could surpass. The inhabitants were all engaged in 
plaiting bamboo splits into baskets. I could not imagine 
what all this basket-making was intended for, until I reflected 
that the time of the Fair was approaching, and that the 
Brahmins would need them as depositories for their spoils. 
Another part of the Bazaar was entirely filled with a display 
of beads; a still larger department was devoted to the sale 
of idols, hundreds of whom squatted cross-legged on both 
sides, staring at me with marvellously good-humored faces. 
Ganeish looked so comical with his elephant's ears and trunk 
that I felt tempted to give the latter member a tweak. But 
in the remaining portion of the bazaar was stowed nothing 
but assafoetida, which is brought over from Thibet. It must 
have been of good quality, for the fragrance was overpower- 
ing My bearers hurried through, crying out, as they had 



TRAVEL IN THE JUNGLE. 179 

done since entering tlie town : " Make way for the Maha- 
rajah ! " 

Passing around the hill, the road began to descend, and 
a superb view of the Dehra Dhoon — a large valley enclosed 
between the Siwalik Hills and the Sub-Himalayas — presented 
itself to my view. Before me lay the Ganges, its waters 
glittering in the sun, as it spread them out in the valley, after 
forcing a pass through a deep, dark gap in the mountains 
before me. These mountains, the Sub-Himalayas, stretched 
far to the west, point lessening and fading beyond point, till 
the magnificent perspective of the Dhoon was closed by the 
distant Chore, the twin brother of Mont Blanc. Snow 
sparkled on all the summits, though the main range was quite 
out of view. On my left the rich, woody undulations of the 
Siwalik Hills swept into the distance, and the great valley 
below, as far as my eye could reach, appeared to be a bound- 
less forest. I was now fairly within the Himalayas, and this 
view gave a splendid promise of the scenery which they 
infold. 

The jungle grew more dense as we advanced, and the 
signs of habitation less and less frequent. The forests were 
the finest I had seen in India, composed principally of saul 
trees, with clusters of bamboo in the hollows. In some places 
they were so laced together with vines, which had in turn 
become trees, that their recesses were almost impenetrable. 
Hundreds of bright-green parrots chattered on the boughs, 
and flowers of brilliant colors gleamed in the foliage. My 
bearers trotted rapidly through these beautiful solitudes, for 
jigers are plentiful, and the carcass of a cow, covered with 
T-ultures, which lay near the road, hinted of them. There 



180 IFDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

were at least fifty huge birds, shrieking and fighting for the 
morsels which remained, and some of them, who were already- 
gorged, could with great difficulty get out of the way of my 
men. Toward evening, I was startled by a roaring sound, 
resembling a high wind advancing through the forest. But 
soon dense volumes of white smoke became visible, and oc- 
casionally streamers of flame shot above the tree-tops. A 
turn in the road discovered an open tract at the foot of the 
hills, covered with tall jungle-grass, which the natives had 
set on fire. The grass was very thick, and from eight to ten 
feet high, so that the conflagration was on a grand scale. 
The flames, of a brilliant scarlet color, pressed along the 
slope with the fury of a charging battalion, and their deep 
roar, with the incessant snapping and crackling of the grass, 
made a noise truly awful. I was strongly reminded of ray 
unlucky attempt at burning out lions, on the White Nil^ a 
year previous. The fire had just leaped over the road, and 
my bearers passed in safety. 

We were obliged to cross several spurs of the Siwalik 
range. The same forest still spread its thick fold over them, 
and the turnings of the road as it rose or descended, gave it 
the appearance of a labyrinth. Sunset came on as we were 
traversing the crest of a long ridge, whence there was a fine 
view over the leafy wilderness below me, and while I was 
borne along by the silent bearers, looking down on the dark- 
ening valley or watching the last flush fading from the 
Himalayan snows, I felt that there might be times when 
palanquin travelling was agreeable. I was a little startled, 
on being carried into a gloomy glen, to see a dozen men 
burst out of the thickets, but it appeared that they were 



ARRIVAL AT DEHRA. 181 

travelers, who had taken a nearer path, known only to 
themselves. 

When it grew dark, the mussalchee lit his torch and 
walked beside the palanquin, waving the light to and fro, 
that the bearers might see where to put their feet. The red 
glow illuminated, with splendid effect, the masses of foliage 
on either hand, and I lay watching it for hour after hour, 
•till I fell from reverie into sleep. I was awakened once 
when the bearers were changed, and a second time, when, 
two hours after midnight, they set me down at the hotel in 
Dehra. 



CHAPTEP, XIV. 

THE HIMAL AY A 6. 

Reception by Mr, Keene — We start for the Himalayas — The Dehra-Dhoon — Morning 
View of the Sub-Himalayas — Leopards — Eajpore — Wilson, the "Eanger of the 
Himalayas" — Climbing the Mountain— Change of Seasons — The Summit of the 
Eidge — Village of Landowr — Snow-Drifts— The Pole and the Equator— Eev. Mr. 
Woodside— Mast-Head of the Sub-Himalayas — View of the Snowy Peaks — Grand 
Asiatic Tradition — Peculiar Structure of the Himalayan Eanges — Scenery of the 
Main Chain — The Paharrees — Polyandry — The Peaks at Sunset — The Plain of 
Hindostan — A Cloudy Deluge. 

On visiting Mr. Keene, the Deputy Magistrate of Dehra, 
the morning after my arrival, I was at once installed as an 
inmate of his house during my stay, and invited to accom- 
pany him to Mussooree and Landowr, on the following day. 
The invitation chimed so thoroughly with my own plans, that 
I accepted it, togetb r with his hospitality. Mr. Keene is 
one of the few persons in the East India Com-pany's Service, 
who have devoted their leisure to literary pursuits. He is 
one of the main props of Saunders' Ilagazine^ a very cre- 
ditable monthly periodical, published at Delhi ; and I do not 
betray a secret, when I state that he is also the author of 
the frequent poems signed " H. G. K.," which appear in 
Blackwood. 



THE DEHRA DHOON. 183 

TVe rose early the next morning, and after a cup of tea, 
set off in Mr. K.'s buggy for Rajpore, at the foot of the 
mountains. The town of Dehra is situated near the centro 
of the Dhoon, or Yalley, of the same name, which is a tract 
about seventy miles in length by fifteen in breadth, between 
the Siwalik Hills and the Sub-Himalayas, and extending 
from the Ganges to the Jumna. Protected alike from the 
hot winds of the plains, and the cold blasts of the hills, it 
is one of the most fertile regions in India, and one of the 
most beautiful which I saw. From Dehra, the whole extent 
of the magnificent valley is visible. The curves of the 
Himalayan range fill up its vistas, on either hand, with 
views of the loftier summits, and thus it appears completely 
shut out from the world. The vegetation is much more 
luxuriant than upon the plains, and owing to its sheltered 
position, most kinds of tropical fruits thrive well, although 
it lies between 30° and 31° K 

The morning was mild and cloudless, the road excellent, 
and we rattled along merrily between clumps of bamboo 
and groves of mango-trees, occasionally looking up to the 
snows that sparkled six thousand feet above us. The houses 
on the very summit of the mountain were distinctly visible. 
The vast sides and shoulders of the .range were scantily 
clothed with jungle, through which showed the dark-red 
hue of the soil, softened to a lurid purple by distance. To- 
ward their bases the jungle was, dense and green, except 
v/here the soil had been cleared and formed into terraces for 
cultivation. The surface of the valley presented a charming 
alternation of grain-fields, groups of immense mango trees, 
and patches of woodland, resembling, in its general aspect 



184 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

the Midland Counties of England. Mr. Keene pointed out 
a hill to the eastward, as the scene of a bloody battle during 
the war with the Goorkhas, or hill-tribes, and the spot where 
Gen. Gillespie fell. The fortress, which formerly crowned 
the hill, has been entirely demolished. The jungles in the 
valley abound with wild beasts. Only two weeks before, a 
lady who was taking an afternoon ride to Rajpore, saw two 
full-grown leopards lying in a field, not more than fifty yards 
from the road. The beasts gazed at her very complacently, 
as well-bred leopards might, but attempted no familiarities. 
In an hour we reached Rajpore, which sits upon the lowest 
step, or foundation stone of the mountain. On some fine wood- 
ed knolls to the west of it there are several handsome bunga- 
lows, the summer residences of invalided or furloughed officers. 
There is also a little hotel, whither we drove, in order to hire 
ponies for the climb of seven miles to Landowr. A tall, heavy- 
featured weather-beaten gentleman of forty-five or fifty, was 
standing in the verandah. He had a red Scotch complexion, 
gray eyes, and yellow hair on the sides of his head, the crown 
being bald. There was something indolent and phelgmatic in 
his air, and I was greatly surprised when Mr. Keene pointed 
him out to me as Wilson, the noted " Eanger of the Himalayas," 
as he is generally called. We entered into conversation with 
him at once. He had come down from Landowr that morning 
on his way to Dehra, but would be back in the hills in a few 
days. He has lived almost exclusively among the upper 
ranges of the Himalayas for more than ten years, and knows 
every pass (so he informed me), as far as Cashmere. His 
wanderings have extended as far as Ladak, or Leh, in Thibet, 
the capital of a state which is at present tributary to Goolab 



CLIMBING THE MOUNTAIN, 185 

Singh, the Rajah of Cashmere. He said there was no difficulty 
in reaching either Cashmere or Ladak, and if I had had two 
months more — but one cannot see every thing. Wilson has 
mnch influence over the palidrrees^ or mountaineers, and his 
services are in great request during the summer, when sport- 
ing tours are made in the upper Himalayas. In addition to 
the ibex, bear, and mountain sheep, there are abundance of 
superb golden pheasants and other magnificent specimens of 
the feathered race, the skins of which he preserves, and which, 
when sent to Calcutta for sale, produce him a handsome 
return. 

I hired a pony for two rupees, and we immediately set out 
for Landowr. Mr. Keene, being the Deputy Magistrate of the 
Dhoon, was escorted through the town by the local police, who 
took their departure with profound salaams. The road, which 
was merely a narrow path for horses, notched along the abrupt 
side of a spur of the mountain, commanded a striking view of 
a deep gorge on the right hand, the sides of which were ter- 
raced and covered with a luxuriant crop of wheat. As we 
ascended further, the Dhoon extended below us, checkered 
with forests and fields, while the white fronts of houses dotted 
its verdurous map. I was reminded of the view from Catskill 
Mountain-House, but missed the clearness and brilliancy of our 
American atmosphere. Here there was a film of blue vapor on 
the landscape, like a crape over my eyes, through which the more 
distant objects glimmered in indistinct and uncertain forms. 
The further we climbed, the dimmer became the scene, until 
there remained but a vapory chaos — the mere ghost of a world 
below us, out of which rose the summits of the Siwalik Hills, 
as if upheaved by the subsidence of the agitated elements. 



136 



INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 



The road was excessively steep, and only wide enough to 
admit of two horsemen passing each other. In many places 
it overhung descents which were so nearly precipitous that a 
stone flung out would strike the earth many hundreds of feet 
below. The jungle became more scanty, and the wild flowers 
ceased. Patches of snow appeared on the heights on either 
side, and gushes of a cold wind, sweeping through gaps in the 
range, now and then blew in our faces. At length we reached 
the top of a ridge, an outlying spur from the summit upon 
which Landowr is perched. The road became more level, and 
when skirting the tremendous gulf separating the branches of 
the range, was protected by a balustrade. A gateway cut in 
the rock admitted us to the north side of the ridge we had as- 
cended, and the passage through it introduced us to a scenery 
of such a different character, that it mght well be called the 
Gate of the Seasons. Behind us the sun shone warm, the grass 
was green and a few blossoms still kept their places on the 
trees ; but around and before us were beds of snow, bare, 
brown patches of sward, and leafless boughs. Only the oak 
— an evergreen variety, with a leaf resembling the beech — aiiU 
the rhododendron, retained their foliage. The height before us 
was sprinkled with one-story bungalows, which clung to such 
narrow ledges of the mountain over such abrupt and frightful 
gulfs, that they seemed to have been dropped and lodged 
there. The precipitous village and the houses scattered along 
the irregular summit is called Landowr. The place has an 
extent of a mile and a half, and half the inhabitants, at least 
during the summer, are English. On one of the highest 
points, is a large military hospital. About two miles to the 



THE POLE AND THE EQUATOR. 187 

West of Landowr is Mussooree, which is scattered in like 
manner, over a ridge nearly a thousand feet lower. 

The street of the native village through which we passed 
was covered with snow to the depth of three feet, and owing 
to the constant thaw which was going on, our horses had 
some difficulty in getting through. The roofs were in many 
places broken by the weight of snow which had fallen upon 
them. However we reached Mr. Keene's bungalow without 
accident, where his tenant, Lieut. B., anticipated our wishes 
by ordering tiffin to be got ready. I had now reached the 
summit of the second range of the Himalayas, 8,000 feet 
above the sea. The cottage where we were quartered 
was perched on a narrow shelf, scooped out of the side 
of the mountain. From the balcony where I sat, I could 
have thrown a stone upon the lowest house in the place. 
For the first time in several weeks, the thermometer was 
above freezing-point, and the snows with which the roof 
was laden poured in a shower from the eaves. Around me 
the heights were bleak and white and wintry, but down the 
gorge below me — far down in its warm bed — I could see 
the evergreen vegetation of the Tropics. Buried to the 
knees in a snow-drift, I looked upon a palm-tree, and could 
almost smell the blossoms of the orange-bowers in a valley 
where frost never fell. It was like sitting at the North 
Pole, and looking down on the Equator. 

I had a letter to Mr. "Woodside, an American Missionary 
who lived upon the highest point of Landowr, and Mr. Keene 
and I visited him during the afternoon. We had still half 
a mile to climb before reaching the summit of the mountain, 
which I found to be a sharp, serrated crest, not more than 



188 



ten yards in breadth. Mr. Woodside's house commands a 
view of "both sides of the Sub-Himalayas; and a natural 
mound beside it has been ascertained, by measurement, to 
be th.e loftiest spot in this part of the range. The house 
and mound were purchased by a benevolent Philadelphian, 
as a sanitarium for Missionaries — a thing much needed by 
that class. I suggested to Mr. Woodside the propriety of 
planting a tall flagstaff on the mound, and running up the 
national colors on certain anniversaries. 

The view from this point best repaid me for my journey 
to the hills. The mound on which we stood was conical, 
and only twenty feet in diameter at the summit. The sides 
of the mountain fell away so suddenly that it had the effect 
of a tower, or of looking from the mast-head of a vessel. 
In fact, it might be called the " main truck " of the Sub- 
Himalayas. The sharp comb, or ridge, of which it is the 
crowning point, has a direction of north-west to south-east 
(parallel to the great Himalayan range), dividing the pano- 
rama into two hemispheres, of very different character. To 
the north, I looked into the wild heart of the Himalayas — 
a wilderness of barren peaks, a vast jumble of red mountains, 
divided by tremendous clefts and ravines, of that dark indigo 
hue, which you sometimes see on the edge of a thunder-cloud 
— but in the back-ground, towering far, far above them, rose 
the mighty pinnacles of the Gungootree, the Jumnootre, the 
Budreenath, and the Kylas, the heaven of Indra, where the 
Great God, Mahadeo, still sits on his throne, inaccessible to 
mortal foot. I was fifty miles nearer these mountains than 
at E-oorkhee, where I first beheld them, and with the addi- 
tional advantage of being mounted on a footstool, equal to 



GRAND ASIATIC TRADITION. 189 

one third of their height. They still stood immeasurably 
above me, so cold, and clear, and white, that, without know- 
ledge to the contrary, I should have said that they were not 
more than twenty miles distant. Yet, as the crow flies, a 
line of seventy miles would scarce have reached their 
summits ! 

Though not the highest of the Himalayas, these summits 
form the great central group of the chain, and contain the 
cisterns whence spring the rivers of India, Thibet and Bur- 
mah. The snows of their southern slopes feed the Jumna 
and Ganges; of their northern, the Sutledj, the Indus and 
the Brahmapootra. Around this group cling the traditions 
of the Hindoo Mythology. Thence came the first parents 
of the race; there appeared the first land after the deluge. 
And upon the lofty table-lands of Central Asia, whereon 
those peaks look down, was probably the birth-place of the 
great Caucasian family, from which the Hindoos and our- 
selves alike are descended. Far to the north-west, where 
the Altay, the Hindoo Koosh (or Indian Caucasus), and the 
Himalayas, join their sublime ranges, there is a table-land 
higher than Popocatapetl, called, in the picturesque lan- 
guage of the Tartars, the "Hoof of the World." Under 
the eaves of that roof, on the table-land of Pamir, if we 
may trust Asiatic tradition, dwelt the parents of our race. 
I fancied myself standing on the cone of Gungootree, and 
looking down upon it. The vast physical features of this 
part of the world are in themselves so imposing, that we are 
but too ready to give them the advantage of any myth which 
invests them with a grand human interest. 

There is a peculiarity in the structure of the Himalayas, 



190 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

of wtich I had not heard, until I visited them. At their 
north-western extremity, on the frontiers of Cashmere and 
Affghanistan, the lower or Sub-Himalayas are lofty, and so 
separated by deep valleys from the higher or snowy range, 
as almost to form a parallel chain. As we proceed east- 
ward, however, the relative height of the two ranges gra- 
dually changes. The peaks of the Upper Himalayas increase 
in height, while those of the Sub-Himalayas decrease. A 
little to the east of the Dhoon, the Siwalik Hills cease en- 
tirely. The Sub-Himalayas gradually dwindle away toward 
Nepaul, becoming more narrow and broken as they approach 
the termination of the chain. Dwalagheri, in the main 
Himalayan chain, once supposed to be the highest moun- 
tain in the world, is in Nepaul. But further to the easi^ is 
Chumalari, which is still higher, and recent measurements 
have discovered that another peak, still further eastward, in 
the former province of Sikim, is higher than Chumalari. 
This regular increase of altitude in the Himalayas, as you 
proceed eastward, is very curious. The height of Dwala- 
gheri is estimated at 27,000 feet; Chumalari, a little more 
than 28,000, and the third peak, the name of which I forget, 
fully 30,000 feet! The Eev. Mr. D'Aguilar, whom I saw 
at Roorkhee, penetrated to the glaciers of Jumnootree. He 
informed me that in ascending the Himalayas, the productions 
become not only of the temperate zone, but English in their 
character ; the flowers, fruit and shrubs being almost identical 
with those of England. In the valleys, however, is found the 
deodar^ or Himalayan cypress, which grows to a height of 
more than 200 feet. There is a temple near the source of 
the Ganges, but owing to the danger and difficulty of the 



THE PAHARREES — POLYANDRY. 191 

journey, comparatively few pilgrims reach it. The air of 
the mountain is pure, fresh and invigorating, and the pahar- 
rees are said to be both physically and mentally superior to 
the inhabitants of the plains. Mr. D'Aguilar considered 
them as a strikingly honest and faithful race. Owing to 
the difficulty of procuring subsistence, and the necessity of 
restricting the increase of population, Polyandry hj^s existed 
among them from time immemorial. The woman and her 
husbands live together harmoniously, and the latter contri- 
bute each an equal share to the support of the children. 
Among these people the saying will particularly apply : " It's 
a wise child that knows its own father." Another of their 
customs is still more singular. Their ideas of hospitality 
compel them to share not only their food, but their connubial 
right with the stranger, and no insult is so great as a refusal 
to accept it. While in Landowr, I saw several of them 
walking bare-legged through the snow, which troubled them 
as little as it would a horse. They were handsome, muscular 
fellows, with black eyes, ivory teeth and a ruddy copper 
complexion. 

I spent the afternoon with Mr. Woodside, and at sunset 
went again upon the mound, to witness the illumination of 
the Himalayas. Although there were clouds in the sky, the 
range was entirely unobscured, and the roseate glare of its 
enormous fields of snow, shooting into flame-shaped pinnacles, 
seemed lighted up by the conflagration of a world. It was 
a spectacle of surpassing glory, but so brief, that I soon lost 
the sense of its reality. 

I was called, however, to witness another remarkable 
phenomenon. Turning from the fading hills, I looked to the 



192 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

south. ' The Dehra Dhoon was buried under a sea of snow- 
white clouds, which rolled and surged against each other 
sinking and rising, like the billows of an agitated sea. Wherd 
we stood, the air was pure and serene ; but far away, over 
that cloudy deluge — which soon tossed its waves above the 
peaks of the Siwalik Hills — more than a hundred miles away 
— and high in air, apparently, ran a faint blue horizon-line, 
like that of the sea. It was the great plain of Hindostan, 
but so distant that the delusion was perfect. The great white 
billows rose, and rose, whirling and tossing as they poured 
into the clefts of the hills, till presently we stood as on a little 
island in the midst of a raging sea. Still they rose, disclosing 
enormous hollows between their piled masses; cliffs, as of 
wool, toppled over the cavities; avalanches slid from the 
summits of the ridges and slowly fell into the depths; and 
as I looked away for many a league over the cloudy world, 
there was motion every where, but not a sound. The silence 
was awful, and as the vast mass arose, I felt an involuntary 
alarm, lest we should be overwhelmed. But to our very feet 
the deluge came, and there rested. Its spray broke against 
the little pinnacle whereon we stood, 6ut the billows kept 
their place. It was as if a voice had said : " Thus far shalt 
thou come, and no further : and here shall thy proud waves 
be stayed." 



CHAPTER XV. 

SCENES IN THE DEHRA DHOON. 

Returu to Dehra — The Dhoon — System of Taxation — The Tea-Culture in India — ^Tea- 
Garden at Kaologir — Progress by Force — Ride to the Robber's Cave — A Sikh Tem- 
ple — A Sunny Picture — Sikh Minstrelsy — Rajab Loll Singh — English Masters and 
Native Servants — Preparations for Departure. 

We returned from Landowr on Wednesday afternoon, the 2d 
of February. Lieut. B. urged us to remain another day, but 
the Himalayas (which I had gone up the mountain at sun- 
rise to see) were half covered with clouds, the snow was 
melting on all sides, and the paths were almost impassable 
from mud and slush. There was said to be a specimen of 
the ycth, or Tartar cow, at Mussooree, which I should have 
seen, but for three miles of sloppy road. As it was, I was 
glad to escape from the dreary though sublime heights of 
Landowr, and return to Dehra, with its groves and sunny 
gardens. The air was still more hazy than on the preceding 
day, but as we descended, the phantom valley flushed into form 
and color, and in an hour and a half from the time my pony 
tumbled down in a snow-drift, I reined him up under a palm-tree. 
Dehra, as I have already stated, is one of the loveliest 
spots in India. Judging from the number of handsome 
9 



194 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

bungalows in and around tlie town, the Anglo-Indians aro 
of a similar opinion. As much of the valley is entirely 
given up to jungle, parts of it, which are marshy and un- 
drained, are considered unhealthy, but a little attention would 
make it one of the healthiest, as it is one of the most fertile, 
districts in Northern India. A small irrigating canal has 
been carried through the central part, but it does not even 
pay the expenses, so feeble and defective is the agriculture of 
the Dhoon. There are reckoned, within its limits, a hun- 
dred villages, but the population must be very scanty, since 
the revenue obtained by Government only amounts to 22,000 
rupees. When I state that the tax imposed upon the zem- 
indars^ who hold the land as Government tenants, amounts 
to 1^ per cent, of the estimated value of the products, it will 
be seen how trifling the actual yield must be. The ryots^ or 
peasants, to whom the land is sub-let by the zemindars, are 
only able to eke out a bare subsistence, so that here, where 
thousands of acres of the best land are lying waste, the 
greater part of the inhabitants are in a state of extreme 
poverty. This system, by which the East India Company 
is the virtual proprietor of all the territory under its exclu- 
sive control, must necessarily be a check to the prosperity of 
India and the civilization of its people ; but when I expressed 
such an opinion to the English residents, I was generally met 
by the remark (the same often used by Americans, apolo- 
getic of Slavery) : " We did not make it — we found it so." 

The introduction of the Tea Culture into India is an 
interesting experiment — if, indeed, it can still be considered 
an experiment. The Government, within the past ten years, 
has devoted much attention to it. All the principal varieties 



TEA CDLTURE IN INDIA. 195 

of the tea-plant have been imported, experimental gardens 
laid out, at different points in the Himalayas, from Assam to 
the north-western frontier of the Punjaub, and Chinese work- 
men procured to teach the preparation of the leaves. Mr. 
Fortune, whose travels in China, on his mission to effect these 
objects, have excited considerable notice, had been dispatched 
a third time to that country, to procure fresh supplies of 
plants and workmen. The Tea Plant was first introduced 
into Assam, a district north of Bengal and lying on the 
Brahmapootra River. A company was formed about fifteen 
years ago, for the cultivation and manufacture of Tea; but 
through ignorance and inexperience, it was for some time a 
losing concern. At present, however, it has so far succeed- 
ed as to produce 300,000 pounds of Tea, and to pay 10 per 
cent, annually to the Company. The experimental gardens 
in the northern and western parts of the Himalayas have 
been established more recently, and the natives are now 
beginning to take up the cultivation of the plant. 

One of the gardens is at Kaologir, about three miles from 
Dehra, and I visited it in company with Mr. Keene. Mr. 
Fortune considers that a level alluvial soil, like that of the 
Dhoon, is not so well adapted for tea as the hJDy country 
about Almorah and in the Punjaub, and if he be correct I 
did not see the plant in its greatest perfection; though I 
should think it difficult for any plantation to present a more 
flourishing appearance than parts of that at Kaologir. It 
consists of three hundred acres of level gouud — a rich, dark 
loam, mixed with clay — and contains plants in every stage 
of growth, from the seedling to the thick, bushy shrub, six 
feet higL It was then the blossoming season, and thn next 



196 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

crop of leaves would not be gathered before May. The plant 
bears some resemblance to the ilex, or holly, but the leaf is 
smaller, of a darker green, and more minutely serrated. The 
blossom is mostly white — in some varieties a yellowish-brown 
— and resembles that of the wild American blackberry. 
The plants were set about three feet apart, in rows four 
feet from each other, with small channels between, for the 
purpose of irrigation. Mr. Fortune, however, considers that 
irrigation is rather injurious than otherwise. 

Mr. Thomson, the Superintendent of the plantation, as- 
sured me that the average yield of the plants, after they had 
reached a proper growth for plucking, might be set down at 
1 cwt. per acre, though, under favorable circumstances, it 
could be increased to 200 lbs. At present, the Dehra and 
Almorah teas sell for purely fancy prices, being bought up 
with avidity at the annual sales, at from two to three rupees 
a pound. Dr. Jameson, who has charge of all the Tea planta 
tions in the north-west, estimates that when the culture shall 
have become general, Tea can be profitably produced at six 
annas (18 cents) the pound. The zemindars, who are with 
difficulty brought to accept of the slightest innovation, are 
^ery reluctant to undertake the culture, although the Govern- 
ment not only releases them from all tax upon land planted 
with Tea shrubs, but binds itself to buy from them, at a re- 
munerative price, all the Tea they can produce. It is now 
proposed 'to corrvmand every zemindar who leases property 
beyond a certain number of acres, to cultivate five acres of 
the Tea plant. Those who know the natives best say that 
this is the only way in which Tea Culture can be rapidly 
extended; the natives being perfectly willing to obey any 



RIDE TO THE ROBBER's CAVE. 197 

commands, althougli they may be immovable to all persua- 
sion. I have been told that when urged to introduce certain 
improvements into their system of agriculture, they often 
answer : " If you really want us to do so, why don't you give 
us the hoohm (command) ? " There would seem to be some 
reason, then, in such a despotic mode of introducing the Tea 
Culture. I drank of both the Dehra and Almorah Teas, 
which were deliciously pure and fragrant, though much 
stronger than the adulterated Teas exported from China. 

The garden at Kaologir was kept in fine order, the fields 
being perfectly clean and free from weeds, and separated from 
each other by hedges of Persian roses, of the deepest crimson 
dye and intensest summer perfume. TV e passed through the 
plantation, and struck across an open tract of country toward 
the tents of Mr. Thornhill, the Magistrate of the Dhoon. 
He received us hospitably under the shade of his patriarchal 
mango-trees, and lent us two horses, to take us to the Rob- 
Der's Cave, which was three or four miles distant, among the 
hills at the base of the Himalayas. We had a charming ride 
through alternate groves, jungles and grain-fields. The great 
mountains before us lay warm and red in the afternoon sun, 
and away to the west, like a soft, white cloud, the Chore lifted 
his snowy head. The peasants were at work in the fields, 
and boys, clad only in the dhotee, or breech-cloth, tended the 
cows as they browsed along the edges of the jungle. 

Finally the path brought us to the brink of a deep sunken 
glen, the sides of which were walls of magnificent foliage. It 
extended before us for nearly a mile, narrowing as it ap- 
proached the hills, two of which overhung and finally blocked 
it up, Our horses scrambled down with some difficulty, and 



198 i:n^dia, china, and japan. 

we followed tlie course of a clear mountain stream, which 
issued from the further extremity. As the glen grew nar- 
rower, its sides became more steep and lofty, yet so tho- 
roughly draped with shrubs and pendant vines, that scarcely a 
particle of soil was visible. The foliage rolled down in gor- 
geous masses, on either hand, dipping its skirts in the clear, 
bright stream, that flowed at the bottom. But the glen at length 
became a ravine, the ravine a crevice, and the hills closed, 
leaving only a split, as of an earthquake, for the passage of th? 
water. A cold wind blew continually from the opening. We rode 
within it a short distance to notice the splendor of the leafy, 
sunlit glen, seen through the black jaws of the gloomy passage. 
The rock is a coarse conglomerate of limestone, whence I suspect 
that the " Cave," as it is called, is a natural grotto, and not a 
crevice produced by an earthc[uake, as some persons suppose. 
By wading in the bed of the stream, you can pass entirely 
through the hill, a distance of nearly a mile, emerging into a 
similar glen on the opposite side. I was struck with the re- 
semblance of the place to the famous " Annathal," near 
Eisenach, in Germany. 

One morning I made a visit to a Sikh temple, of great 
sanctity, which stands at the further end of the town. It is 
connected with the tomb of a Gooroo, or Saint, and is about 
two hundred years old. It is enclosed in a spacious court, and 
appears to have been built on the site of some older edifice, as 
a portion of the gateway is evidently of much earlier date than 
the tomb. One of the buildings, now used as a habitation, has 
a portico of very grotesque design, covered with paintings 
representing events in the Saint's life, and, singularly enough, 
portraits of some of the Hindoo gods. The religion of the Sikhs 



A SIKH TEMPLE. 199 

is a compromise between Islam and Hindooism, rejecting all the 
minor divinities of the latter and accepting, in their stead, the 
One God of the Moslems, without the full recognition of 
Mahomet as his Prophet. They abjure caste, but, probably out 
of regard for the feelings of their converts, abstain from eating 
cow's flesh. Their moral code is very similar to that of the 
Hindoos and Moslems. One of the pictures in the portico 
illustrates a miracle which happened to the Sikh Saint, during 
a visit which he made to Mecca. Being directed by the 
Moslem priests to sleep with his feet to the Kaaba, he refused, 
and lay down with his head towards it, but during the night it 
turned around in a marvellous manner, and presented itself to 
his feet ! 

A second gateway admitted us into a garden, containing the 
tomb of the Saint, and the tombs of his four wives. The form- 
er stands in the centre, the latter in the four corners of a paved 
court, and are connected with each other by narrow stone cause- 
ways. The Saint's tomb is covered with a lofty dome, and 
surrounded with a cloister, richly enamelled and painted, in the 
style of the Mogul tombs about Agra and Delhi. It has no 
pretensions to architectural beauty, but was a most picturesque 
object, with its white dome, its deep shadowy arches, and the 
brilliancy of its colors half touched with sunshine, half buried 
in the shade of two massive peepul trees. Over the corner of 
the platform rose the stems of the palm and Italian cypress, and 
beyond the garden- wall appeared the tufted tops of some clumps 
of bamboos. It was a picture ready for the sun-steeped pencil 
of Cropsey. 

But after we had passed around to the front, another pic- 
ture, not less beautiful, was speedily formed. A blind Sikh 



'200 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 



fakeer,. who had pilgrimed his way thither from the Pun- 
jaub, lay in the sun, half-propped against one of the pillars, 
with a sitar, or Indian violin, in his hand. We asked him 
to play for us, whereupon he slowly tuned the strings, took 
up a short bow, and began playing one of those passionate 
melodies of love and languishment, which you only hear in 
a southern clime. The body of the violin was of wood, 
curved and ribbed so as to resemble a crooked gourd, or a 
segment of a fossil ammonite. It had a short neck, and four 
strings of catgut, under which were eight very slender wires, 
out of the reach of the bow, but tuned so as to give out a 
spontaneous accord to the notes produced upon the strings. 
The tones were like those of an ordinary violin, but very 
pure, sweet and ringing. I should think the instrument 
capable, in the hands of a master, of producing the most 
exquisite musical effects. In the Sikh's hands, it spoke truly 
the language of Southern love, now passionate, now implor- 
ing, but falling always into the same melting cadences, which 
were too beautiful to be monotonous. He sang, like the 
Arabs, in a succession of musical cries. Around him were 
Sikh priests and a knot of half-naked boys, some basking in 
the full glare of the sun, some seated under the arches of 
the tomb. They were all necessary parts of the picture. 
"Would the music have had the same meaning, if the Sikh 
had been seated under a pine, on the Catskill? — No; that 
same pine is not more different from the palm which I saw 
while listening to the song, than is Man, in the North, from 
Man, in the South. 

On our return home we called at the house of the Rajah 
Loll Singh, a Sikh Chieftain, to whom the English are in- 



RAJAH LOLL SINGH. 201 

debted in a great measure for the conquest of the Punjaub- 
But, having been treacherous to his countrymen in the first 
place, he was afterward accused of meditating treachery to 
the English, and had only recently been released from tem- 
porary imprisonment at Agra. He had a pension of 1,000 
rupees a month from the Government, with which he rented a 
handsome bungalow, and was living in considerable style. 
He had a great passion for dogs, and was something of a 
shiJcarree, or sportsman. The guards at his residence pre- 
sented arms as we rode up, and we were soon afterwards 
received by the Rajah himself. Loll Singh means " Ked 
Lion," and the name well suited his stout, muscular figure, 
heavy beard and ruddy face. He was richly dressed in a 
garment of figured silk, with a Cashmere shawl around tin 
waist, and a turban of silk and gold. Rings of gold wire, 
upon which pearls were strung, hung from his ears to his 
shoulders. His eye was large, dark and lustrous, and his 
f?mile gave an agreeable expression to a face that would other- 
wise have been stern and gloomy. As he spoke no English, 
my conversation with him was confined to the usual greet- 
ings, and some expressions of admiration respecting a favorite 
spaniel, which he called " Yenus." He spent the same 
evening at Mr. Keene's, appearing in a very rich and elegant 
native costume, with an aigrette of large diamonds and 
emeralds attached to his throat. 

I was much amused by noticing the opinions of diff"erent 
English residents, respecting their native servants. Some 
praised their honesty and fidelity in high terms; others de- 
nounced them as liars and pilferers. Some trusted them 
implicitly with their keys, while others kept their cupboards 
9* 



202 IITDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

and closets carefully locked. Nearly all seemed to agree, 
however, that one can never wholly depend on their truth- 
fulness. There are laws prohibiting the master from beating 
his servants, and indeed blows are of no effect. The punish- 
ment now adopted, is to fine them, which has been found 
very efficacious. They care little for being reproved, if in 
their own language, but are greatly annoyed by the use of 
English terms, which they do not understand. Thus, to 
address a man as : " You wicked rectangle ! " " You speci- 
men of comparative anatomy ! " &c., would be a much greater 
indignity than the use of the vilest epithets, in Hindostanee. 

After having enjoyed Mr. Keene's hospitality for five 
days, I ordered my bearers to be ready on Saturday for the 
return to Meerut. The day, however, brought a thunder- 
storm and rain in torrents, obliging me to postpone my 
departure until the following morning. Rajah Loll Singh 
offered me his elephant, for the ride through the Siwalik 
Hills, and as my kind host proposed to take me across the 
Dhoon in his buggy, I sent the palanquin and bearers on in 
advance, to await me at Mohun, on the other side of the pass. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

jotjRney to meerut and cawnpore. 

Eide to Shahpore— The Rajah's Elephant— The Pass of the Siwalik Hills— I Resume 
the Palanquin— The Large Punch-Fouse— Saharunpore- The American Mission— 
The Botanic Garden— A Dreary Journey — Travellers — Salutations — Return to 
Meerut— A Theft—Journey over the Plains— Scen'^ry of the "Road— The Pollution 
of Touch— Fractious Horses— Arrival at Cawnpore— Capt. Riddell— The English 
Cantonments. 

1 LEFT Mr. Keene's pleasant residence at Dehra on Sunday 
morning, the 6tli. The thnnder-storm had passed away, the 
sky was blue and yaporiess, the verdure of the beautiful 
valley freshened by the rain, and the heights of the Sub- 
Himalayas were capped with new-fallen snow. My host and I 
took a hasty breakfast, and then set off for Shahpore in his 
buggy. The distance was nine miles, the road muddy, full 
of deep pools left by the rain, and ascending as we approached 
•the hills, so that we made but slow progress. From the 
mouth of the pass I turned to take a last view of the lovely 
valley. Just within the opening is Shahpore, a native ham- 
let, consisting of about a dozen bamboo huts. Mr. Keene 
was here met by one of the native police, who engaged to 



i04 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

send a.cheprassee with mo to Mohun, for the purpose of 
seeing that my bearers were ready. 

The Rajah had kept his promise, and his big she-elephant 
had already arrived. She knelt at the keeper's command, 
and a small ladder was placed against her side, that I might 
climb upon the pad, as I had been unable to borrow a howdah. 
I had a package of bread and cold roast-beef, to serve me as 
a tiffin, but was careful to conceal it from the driver, other 
wise himself and the elephant, with all her trappings, mast 
have undergone purification on account of the unclean flesh. 
I took a reluctant leave of Mr Keene, seated myself astride 
on the pad, with the driver before me, on the elephant's neck, 
and we moved off. The driver was a Sikh, in a clean white 
and scarlet dress, and a narrow handkerchief bound around 
his head. His long, well-combed hair -wd) anointed with 
butter, and, as his head was just under my nose, I was con- 
tinually regaled with the unctuous odors. He carried a short 
iron spike, with which he occasionally punched the elephant's 
head, causing her to snort and throw up her trunk, as she 
quickened her pace. I found the motion very like that of a 
large dromedary, and by no means unpleasant or fatiguing. 
Though walking, she went at the rate of about five miles an 
hour. I noticed that the driver frequently spoke to her, ii? 
a quiet, conversational tone, making remarks about the roads 
and advising her how to proceed — all of which she seemed 
to understand perfectly, and obeyed without hesitation. 

After leaving Shahpore, the road ascended through a wila 
gorge of about half a mile, where it reached the dividing 
ridge and thence descended into a winding glen, which showed 
traces of having been worn through the hills by the actioii 



TEE PASS OF THE SIWALIK HILL9L 205 

of water. Our path followed the bed of the stream for the 
distance of eight miles, where the pass opens upon the great 
plain. The scenery is very wild and picturesque, the hills 
being covered to their very summits with jungle, the abode 
of the tiger and wild elephant. None of the peaks are more 
than 1,000 or 1,200 feet above the bottom of the glen, yet 
in their forms they have a striking similarity to the great 
Himalayan range. They are sharp and conical, frequently 
with a perpendicular front, like a bisected cone, and are 
divided by deep and abrupt chasms. I was quite charmed 
with the succession of landscapes which the windings of the 
pass brought to view, and nothing was wanting to complete 
my satisfaction but the sight of a tiger. The jungle was 
filled with parrots, a bird with plumage blue as a turquoise, 
and flocks of wild peacocks. The plumage of the latter 
bird is much more brilliant than that of the domesticated 
fowl, although the body is smaller. Near the entrance of 
the pass, a large congregation of monkeys, each seated on 
a huge boulder left by the floods, gravely watched me as 
I passed. 

At Mohun I found my palanquin standing in front of 
the Police office, which was a bamboo hut. The cheprassees 
were very obsequious in their offers of service, and imme- 
diately called together my bearers. I sent back the ele- 
phant, seated myself cross-legged in the palanquin, and 
made a very fair tiffin out of the prohibited cow's-flesh and 
bread. Saharunpore was twenty-nine miles distant, and it 
was already noon. I therefore urged on the bearers, in the 
hope of arriving before dark. The plain was very mono- 
tonous, swept by cold winds from the hills, and appeared like 



206 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

a desert, by contrast with the luxuriant Dhoon. The sun 
went down, and I was still stretched in the tiresome palan- 
quin, but about dusk the mussalchee (torch-bearer) came and 
asked where they should take me. I supposed there was a 
hotel in Saharunpore, and answered ; " to the punch ghur " 
(punch-house or hotel). " Which one ? " he again asked. 
At a venture, I answered: "the hurra (large) punch-ghur." 
Away they went, and in a quarter of an hour, the palanquin 
was set down. " Here is the punch-house," said the mus- 
salchee. I crept out, and found myself at the door of the 
Station Church! There happened, however, to be some 
natives passing through the enclosure, who directed me to 
the dawk bungalow, as there was no hotel. I called on the 
Rev. Mr. Campbell, an American Missionary, in the course 
of the evening, and he at once quartered me in his house. 
As my bearers were engaged to start for Meerut the 
next morning, my kind host arose before sunrise and took 
me in his buggy to see something of the place. The can- 
tonments are scattered over a wide space, and have not the 
comfortable air of those at Meerut. The lanes are lined 
with the casurena or Australian Pine, a lofty, ragged look- 
ing tree, with very long and slender fibres, which gives the 
place the air of an English or German country town. The 
native city has a population of about 80,000 inhabitants, 
and appeared to be an industrious and flourishing place. 
The American Mission at Saharunpore is supported by the 
Presbyterian Board. The Missionaries have erected a hand- 
some church, two spacious dwelling-houses, and a school- 
house, all within the same enclosure, besides an agency in 
the native town for the distribution of books, and the dis- 



AMERICAN MISSIONS. 207 

cussion of religious matters with any of the natives who 
choose to come forward. Mr. Campbell was sanguine as 
to the ultimate success of Missions in India. Their schools 
of education (embracing also religious instruction) are cer- 
tainly doing much to enlighten the race; but so far as I 
could learn, very few scholars change their faith, though 
educated as Christians. They look upon the Christian 
Doctrine very much as we look upon the Greek Mythol- 
ogy. They are interested in it, they admire portions of it, 
yet still go on worshipping the lingam, and keeping up the 
distinctions of caste. I have no doubt that caste is at the 
bottom of all this, and that many who are convinced in their 
own hearts of the truth of Christianity, dare not avow it, on 
account of the ban of excommunication from their friends and 
kindred, which would immediately follow. 

Mr. Campbell took me to the Botanic Garden, where I 
had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Jameson, who has charge of 
the Tea Culture in the north-west. The Garden is one 
of the finest in India. It is laid out with great taste, 
and contains nearly all the indigenous trees and plants, 
besides many exotics. I there saw, for the first time, a 
cinnamon tree, the large glossy leaves of which were re- 
dolent of its spicy blood. The cinnamon is brother to our 
native sassafras. It is of so refined and dainty a nature, 
that there are but few parts of the world where it will 
grow. 

I left Saharunpore at ten o'clock, congratulating myself, 
as I entered my palanquin, that it was the last journey I 
should make in such a disagreeable vehicle. It was a veiled, 
cool and dreary day ; the plains had even a wintry look, and 



208 IITDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

nothing could be more monotonous. I was heartily sick 
of the journey before night. The Himalayas were so ob- 
scured that nothing but a large leaden-colored mass was to 
be seen on the horizon. The road was crowded with people 
among whom were several Englishmen in their palanquins, 
on their way up to the hills. Numbers of native women 
also passed, some in the hackree, or bullock-cart, and others 
borne in a dhoolie, a rude sort of palanquin made of bamboo, 
and covered with a cotton cloth. These are the "ferocious 
Dhoolies," who, according to Sheridan, in one of his Par- 
liamentary speeches, " carried off the unfortunate wounded " 
from the field of battle — the orator, ignorant of Hindostanee, 
supposing that the " dhoolies " were a tribe of savage people. 

At dusk I reached a station where the bearers were not 
on hand, but such vigorous search was made for them that 
I was not detained more than half an hour. The native 
salutation in these parts is " Ram, Ram ! " and the answer 
the same — as if one should say, in English, " God, God ! " 
instead of "Good morning." I was no longer addressed as 
" Protector of the Poor," but received the Persian title of 
Khodawend, which signifies "My Lord." About nine o'clock 
I reached Mozuffernuggur, only half way to Meerut. I rolled 
myself in my quilted rezaya^ closed the palanquin, except 
when the bearers cried out for backsheesh, and so slept, 
dozed, and waked alternately through the long, chilly night. 
The first streak of dawn showed me the buildings of Sird- 
hana (the former residence of the famous Begum Somroo), 
on the right, and just as the sun rose the shivering bearers 
set me down at the hotel in Meerut. 

I visited the unwashed individual of whom I SDoke in a 



THE ROAD TO CAWNIDRE. 209 

former chapter, returned him his palanquin, and then engaged 
a garree to Cawnpore. The distance was 273 miles, and the 
cost of a comfortable garree, with relays of horses, about 
$1G. In order to rest, and to allow time for the necessary 
preparations to be made, I did not leave until evening — a delay 
which enabled the native servants at the hotel to steal from 
me a handsome box of Cashmere manufacture — the present 
of a friend — containing several beautiful Delhi miniatures. 
I did not discover the loss until reaching Cawnpore, and 
was the more annoyed at it, as there was then no chance 
of replacing the miniatures. 

The night of leaving Meerut, I again passed Allyghur, 
much to my regret, for I desired to see the famous pillar 
of Coel. Morning dawned on the plains of Hindostan. 
There is almost as little variety in the aspect of these im- 
mense plains as in that of the open sea. The same fields of 
wheat, poppies, grain and -mustard alternate with the same 
mango or tamarind groves; the Hindoo temples by the 
r ladside are the same dreary architectural deformities, and 
the villages you pass, the same collections of mud walls, 
thatched roofs and bamboo verandahs, tenanted by the same 
family of hideous fakeers, naked children, ugly women 
(who try to persuade you that they are beautiful, by hiding 
their faces), and beggars in every stage of deformity. But 
I noticed, as I proceeded s^outhward, spacious caravanserais, 
built of burnt brick, though ruined and half deserted ; richer 
groves of tamarind and brab palm; and the minarets and 
pagodas of large towns which the road skirted, but did not 
enter. I stopped at the bungalow of Etah for breakfast, 
which was ready in an hour. The bungalows on this road 



210 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

are nmcli superior to tliose in other parts of India. The 
floors are carpeted, and there are mattrasses and pillows on 
the charpoys. The rooms have a neat, homelike air, and 
are truly oases in that vast wilderness — for such India still 
is, except where the European hand has left its trace. The 
day passed away like other days on the plains. It was warm 
during the mid-hours, and the road was very dusty, in spite 
of the recent rains. It is a magnificent highway, and would 
not suffer by comparison with any in Europe. The amount 
of travel is so great, that from sunrise until sunset, I beheld 
an almost unbroken procession of natives of all descriptions, 
from the Affghan and Sikh, to the Goorkha of the hills and 
the Mahratta of the Deccan, with tattoos (as the little coun- 
try ponies are called), camels, elephants, Persian steeds, buffa- 
loes, palanquins, dhoolies, hackrees, bullock trains, and the 
garrees of luxurious travellers like myself. I can, however, 
feel neither the same interest in, nor respect for, the natives 
of India, as for the Arab races of Africa and Syria. The 
lower castes are too servile, too vilely the slaves of a de- 
grading superstition, and too much given to cheating and 
Ijdng. One cannot use familiarity towards them, without 
encouraging them to impertinence. How different from my 
humble companions of the Nubian Desert! 

About noon I passed Mynpoorie, a civil and missionary 
station, though not, I believe, a military cantonment. To- 
wards evening I stopped for an hour at another bungalow, 
to take dinner, and then started for Cawnpore. The driver 
was changed again at dusk, and as I was very thirsty, I 
asked b!m to get me a drink of water, before giving him 
his backsheesh. Unfortunately, I bad forgotten to bring a 



THE POLLUTION OF TOUCH. 211 

glass with me, and tlie people refused to let me touch one 
of their brass drinking-vessels, as this would occasion them 
a violent scouring, if not the destruction of the article. 
After some search, a clay vessel of the rudest description 
was found, with a spout like a tea-pot, and I was allowed 
to drink by holding it above my head and pouring the 
stream down my throat. I had learned the trick of this 
on the Nile, or it might have been a strangling matter. 
To such an extent are the accursed laws of caste carried, 
that where the English have ruled for nearly a century, 
their very touch is defilement. On my trip from Bombay 
to Agra, being ignorant of the practical operation of these 
laws, I frequently helped myself to the cups of the natives, 
when they refused to furnish me with drink. In this way, 
very innocently, I occasioned the destruction of considerable 
crockery. 

We had several fractious horses during the night, but 
I had learned patience by long experience, and so lay still 
and let the beast take his course. I think we must have 
been detained in one spot nearly half an hour, by a horse 
that would dash from side to side, obstinately refusing to 
go forward. In the traveller's book at the bungalow where 
I dined, I read the memorandum of a gentleman who had 
been left in the lurch by the driver and groom, after they 
had taken the bits out of the horse's mouth. He was run 
away with, and narrowly escaped being dashed to pieces. 
I feared, once or twice, that I might have the same driver 
and groom, and the same wicked tattoo. At last, when the 
Great Bear (my nocturnal dial) had passed his occultation, 
and I knew that the dawn would appear in half an hour, I 



212 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

was €et down at the Cawnpore Hotel. Shortly after I 
arrived, a salute of nineteen guns announced the departure 
of the Governor of the North- West. 

Looking out of the window of my room, after sunrise, 
I saw the Ganges flowing beneath it — not a sparkling moun- 
tain stream, as at Hurdwar, but a deep, muddy river, lined 
with barges. The opposite bank was a beach of white sand, 
which glared painfully in the sun. After a visit to a half- 
blood, or Eurasian banker, I went to the Joint Magistrate, 
Capt. Eiddell, whom I found dispensing justice to the 
natives, under the shade of a huge umbrella tent, in the 
midst of his own umbrageous compound. He received me 
very courteously, and insisted on my removing to his house, 
but as I had made arrangements to leave the same evening 
for Lucknow, I could only promise to spend Saturday 
morning with him after my return. 

Cawnpore is a pleasant spot, though it contains nothing 
whatever to interest the traveller. It is one of the largest 
cantonments in the Mofussil (the Anglo-Indian term for 
the rural districts), and the scattering bungalows of the 
civil and military residents extend for five miles along the 
western bank of the Ganges, which is high and steep. The 
town is shaded with neem trees of great size. In walking 
past the bungalows, I noticed many elegant and well kept 
gardens, and was more than once greeted with the delicious 
odor of violets in bloom. Close beside the beds of this 
humble Saxon flower hung the scarlet buds of the Syrian 
pomegranate, or the tattered plumes of the tropical banana. 
The residences are large, but their enormous roofs of thatch 
contrast oddly with verandahs supported by Ionic pillars. 



CAWNPORE. 213 



The Church is a large Gothic edifice, English from turrvt 
to foundation stone, and an exile, like those who built it. 
A Gothic building looks as strangely among palm-trees, as 
an Oriental palace on the shores of Long-Island Sound. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

A DAY AT LUCKNOW. 

roselng the Ganges — Night-Journey to Lucknow — Arrival — A Mysterious Visitor — A 
Morning Stroll — The Goomtee River — An Oriental Picture— The Crowds of Luck- 
now — Col, Sleeman, the Eesideut— Drive through the City — The Constantinople 
Gate — Architectural Effects — The Imam barra— Gardens and Statues — Singular Dec- 
orations of the Tomb — The Chandeliers — Speculation in Oude — Hospital and Mosque 
— The King's New Palace— The Martiniere— Eoyalty Plundered— The Dog and tho 
Eose-Water — Destruction of the King's Sons — The Explosion of a Fiend — Misrule 
in Oude — Wealth of Lucknow— A Eide on a Royal Elephant— The Queen-Dowa- 
ger's Mosque — Navigating the Streets — A Squeeze of Elephants — The Place of Exe- 
cution — The Choke — Splendor and Corruption. 

The post-garree for Lucknow called for me in the evening, 
at the hotel. There is a good road from Cawnpore to the 
former place, with communication twice a day, and the dis- 
tance, fifty-three miles, is usually made in seven hours. In a 
few minutes after leaving, we reached the bridge of boats over 
the Ganges, where I, as the passenger, was obliged to pay 
half a rupee at each end. This is a regulation peculiar to 
the Cawnpore bridge, distinguishing it from all others in 
the world. After crossing the river, we came upon a long 
plank causeway, extending over the sandy flats on the op- 
posite side. The night was dark and damp, and I closed 



A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR. 215 

the panels on each side and disposed myself to sleep. The 
country between the two places is an extension of the great 
plain, and there is nothing on the road worth seeing. 

On awaking out of a sound sleep, about three o'clock 
in the morning, I found the garree standing before the door 
of the dawk bungalow and post-office, which are both in 
one building. The drowsy chokedar showed me into a 
room with eight doors, containing a table and charpoy, 
covered with a rude mattrass. I tried to fasten the doors 
but four of them, which led into other parts of the build- 
ing, had no locks. I then half undressed and lay down on 
the mattrass to finish my night's rest. It might have been 
an hour afterward, as I was lying in that dim condition 
betwixt sleeping and waking, when I heard a slight noise 
at .one of the doors — a muffled vibration, as if it had sud- 
denly opened to a gentle pressure. Listening intently, with 
all my senses preternaturally sharpened, I heard a very 
slow and cautious footstep upon the matting, and was try- 
ing to ascertain in which direction it moved, when I dis- 
tinctly felt the gentlest touch in the world, as if some one 
had passed kis hand down my side. I sprang up in some 
alarm, uttering an involuntary exclamation, but could nei- 
ther see nor hear any thing, nor did any thing appear until 
I became fatigued with watching, and fell asleep again. 
But, from the fact that several attempts at robbery were 
made the same night, I have no doubt whatever that it was 
an artful thief, in search of plunder, and probably one of 
those adroit scamps to be found only in India, who will take 
the clothes off a man's back while he is asleep, withou* 
awaking him. 



216 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

Alter an early cup of tea, I started ofl* ou a solitary 
stroll, postponing my visit to Col. Sleeman, the English 
llesident, until after breakfast. I set out at random, but 
soon ascertained the direction in which the principal part 
of the city lay, by glimpses of its fortress walls, domes and 
airy minarets. I did not feel inclined, however, to plunge 
into its depths without a guide, but followed the course of 
a bazaar, which was filled with venders of fruit, vegetables 
and firewood. Crowds of people passed to and fro, the 
gaudy dresses of many of the natives betraying, as at Delhi, 
the presence of a native court. Some were borne in palan- 
quins, some mounted on elephants, and a few on fine horses 
of Arabian blood. They looked at me with curiosity, as if 
an Englishman on foot was an unusual sight. On the way 
I passed several small mosques, which showed an odd mix- 
ture of the Saracenic and Hindoo styles, a hybrid in which 
the elegance of Saracenic architecture was quite lost. Which- 
ever way I looked, I saw in the distance, through the morn- 
ing vapors, the towers of Hindoo temples, or the bulbous 
domes of mosques, many of them gilded, and flashing in 
the rays of the sun. 

The street I had chosen led me to a bridge over the river 
Goomtee, which here flows eastward, and skirts the northern 
side of the city. The word Goomtee means literally, " The 
Twister, " on account of the sinuous course of the river. Look- 
ing westward from the centre of the bridge, there is a beautiful 
view of the city. Further up the river, which flowed with a 
gentle current between grassy and shaded banks, was an ancient 
Btone bridge, with lofty pointed arches. The left bank rose 
gradually from the water, forming a long hill, which was crown 



AN ORIENTAL PICTURE. 217 

ed with palaces and mosques, stretching away into the distance, 
where a crowd of fainter minarets told of splendors beyond. The 
coup d'oeil resembled that of Constantinople, from the bridge 
across the Golden Horn, and was more imposing, more pictu- 
resque and truly Oriental than that of any other city in India. 
The right bank was level, and so embowered in foliage that only 
a few domes and towers were visible above the sea of sycamores, 
banyans, tamarind, acacia, neem and palm-trees. I loitered on 
the bridge so long, enjoying the refreshing exhilaration of such 
a prospect, that I am afraid the dignity of the great English 
race, in my person, was much lessened in the eyes of the natives. 
The picture, so full of Eastern pomp and glitter, ejuLaiiCed 
by the luxuriance of Nature, was made complete hj the char- 
acter of the human life that animated it. Here were not mere- 
ly menials, in scanty clothing, or sepoys undergoing daily pillo- 
ry in tight coats and preposterous stocks, but scores of emirs, 
cadis, writers, and the like, attired in silken raiment and splen- 
didly turbaned, continually passing to and fro, with servants 
running before them, dividing the crowds for the passage of 
their elephants. The country people were pouring into the city 
by thousands, laden with their produce, and the bazaars of fruit 
and vegetables, which seemed interminable, were constantly 
thronged. At first I imagined it must be some unusual occa- 
sion which had called such numbers of the inhabitants into the 
streets ; but I was told that they were always as crowded as 
then, and that the population of Lucknow is estimated at 800,- 
000 inhabitants ! It is, therefore, one of the most populous 
cities in Asia, and may be ranked with Paris and Constantino- 
ple, in Europe. Its length is seven miles, the extre^ne breadth 
four miles, and the central part is very denrfcly populated. 
10 



218 INDIA, CHINA AND JAPAN. 

Aftv breakfasting at tlie buagalow, I called upon Col. Slee- 
mau, the East India Company's Resident, whose works on In- 
dia, combined with his labors for the extirpation of the Thugs, 
or Stranglers, have made his name known in Europe and 
America. The Residency is a large and lofty building, deserv- 
ing the name of a palace, and surrounded by beautiful gardens. 
I had no letter to Col. Sleeman, but took the liberty of asking 
his advice relative to the things best worth seeing in Lucknow, 
as I had but a day to spare. Nothing could exceed the prompt 
and kind response of that gentleman. He immediately order- 
ed his carriage, and as he was personally occupied, sent one of 
his native secretaries to conduct me through the city. I en- 
tered the bazaar again in grand style, with postilion, grooms and 
footmen, who ran in advance to clear a way, and obliged even 
the elephants to stand on one side. Nevertheless the streets 
were so densely crowded, that we proceeded very slowly. Af- 
ter threading the masses of the populace for about a mile and a 
half, between rows of three-story native houses, mosques, and 
caravanserais, we reached what appeared to be the heart of the 
city. A spacious gateway spanned the street, over which a for- 
est of tall minarets and gilded domes rose in the distance. 
Passing through the arch, we entered an open square, with a 
large mosque and hospital on the left side, and a magnificent 
gate of white marble beyond. This is called the Eoomee Der- 
wazee, or Constantinople Gate, from an idea that it is copied 
from a gate in that city, but I have no recollection of any gate 
there which even remotely resembles it. 

After passing the Roomee Derwazee, I was startled by the 
unexpected splendor of the scene. I was in the centre of a 
group of tombs, mosques and pavilions, all of which were of 



THE IMAMBARRA. 219 

marble or covered with white stucco, and surmounted with 
swelling Oriental domes, which shone like solid gold — -fitting 
crowns to the slender arches, and the masses of Saracenic fili- 
gree and fretwork, from which they sprang. A huge stone 
tank, with flights of steps descending into it on all sides, occu- 
pied the foreground of the picture. Around its banks, and be- 
tween the dazzling pavilions, ran a boskage of roses in full 
bloom, in the midst of which a few tall palms shot up into the 
sunshine. It was nearly noon, and the sun, now almost vertical, 
poured such an unrelieved glare upon the scene, that my eyes 
were not strong enough to endure it for more than two or three 
minutes. 

On the left was the gate of the Imambarra, or tomb of 
Azuf ed-Dowlah, one of the former Nawabs of Oude, and here 
the carriage drew up. I alighted, and entered a quadrangle, 
surrounded by the same dazzling white architecture, with gild- 
ed domes blazing against the intense blue of the sky. The en- 
closed space was a garden, in which stood two beautiful mauso- 
leums of marble. Several feeble fountains played among the 
flowers, and there was a long pool in the midst, with a bridge over 
it, and grotesque wooden figures of sepoys, of the size of life, 
standing guard at each end. Scattered about the garden were 
also several copies in plaster of classical statues, and one iu 
marble of Actaeon and his hounds. Although Lucknow is a 
thoroughly Moslem city, most of the inhabitants, as well as 
the royal family, belong to the sect of Sheeahs — the descendants 
of the partisans of Ali — who do not scruple to make pictures or 
models of living things. This is a cause of great annoyance and 
sorrow to the Sonnees, or orthodox Mussulmen, who hold it to 
be a sin in the sight of God. The idea originated, no doubt, 



220 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

in the iconoclastic zeal of the Prophet and his immediate suc- 
cessors. 

On ascending the marble steps leading to the edifice at the 
bottom of the garden, I imagined for a moment that I beheld 
a manufactory of chandeliers. Through the open marble arch- 
es nothing else was at first visible. The whole building was 
hung with them — immense pyramids of silver, gold, prismatic 
crystals and colored glass — and where they were too heavy 
to be hung, they rose in radiant piles from the floor. In the 
midst of them were temples of silver filigree, eight or ten feet 
high, and studded with cornelians, agates and emeralds. These 
were the tombs. The place was a singular jumble of precious 
objects. There were ancient banners of the Nawabs of Oude, 
heavy with sentences from the Koran, embroidered in gold ; 
gigantic hands of silver, covered with talismanic words ; sacred 
shields, studded with the names of God ; swords of Khorassan 
steel, lances and halberds ; the turbans of renowned command- 
ers ; the trappings of the white horse of Nasr ed-Deen, mount- 
ed on a wooden effigy ; and several pulpits of peculiar sanctity. 
I had some difficulty in making out a sort of centaur, with a 
human head, eyes of agate, a horse's body of silver, and a pea- 
cock's tail, but was solemnly informed that it was a correct re- 
presentation of the beast Borak, on which the Prophet made 
his journey to Paradise. The bridle was held by two dumpy 
angels, also of silver, and on each side stood a tiger about five 
feet long and made of transparent blue glass. These, I was 
told, came from Japan. 

I had some difficulty in believing that this curiosity shop 
was the tomb of the Poet-King, Azuf ed-Dowlah ; but so it 
was. The decorations are principally due to the taste of the 



SPECULATION IN ODDE. 221 

present king, wlio is silly almost to imbecility, and pays the 
most absurd sums for bis chandeliers and glass tigers. The two 
finest chandeliers cost him $50,000 each ; but it is not to be 
supposed that all this money went into the pocket of the mer- 
chant. The Grand-Vizier, and other officers of Court, had their 
shares, down to the eunuchs. The King gave a small garden- 
palace to one of his wives not long ago. A wall was necessary, 
to screen a part of the garden from the view of the public, and a 
mason was called upon to undertake the work. On being asked 
to state the cost he at first said 100,000 rupees, but, calcu- 
lating afterwards, that of this sum the Grand- Vizier would 
keep the half, the Minister of the Treasury 20,000 rupees, and 
various other privileged bloodsuckers a proportionate share, 
while the building of the wall would actually cost 5,000 ru- 
pees, he gave up the contract, as a losing job ! No description 
can fully illustrate the corruption of the Court of Oude. It is 
a political ulcer of the most virulent kind, and there is no rem- 
edy but excision. For the sake of Humanity, the East India 
Company would be fully justified in deposing the monarch 
and bringing the kingdom under its own rule. 

Keturning through the Constantinople Gate, I entered the 
large building adjacent, which was formerly a hospital, and 
still contains the tomb of its royal founder. Its architecture 
is purer than that of the Imambarra. The proportions of the 
halls are admirable, and the deep embroidered arches of the por- 
tico have the finest efi'ect. Adjoining this edifice is a mosque 
built upon a lofty platform of masonry. It is an ambitious 
work, but falls behind those of Delhi, and the minarets are so 
large as to be out of all proportion. On the return to Col. 
Sleeman's, I passed under the walls of an old palace, which 



222 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

were lined with massive buttresses. I was told that it is used 
as a retreat for the wives of former kings. 

Capt. Sleeman (the Resident's nephew), who has charge 
of suppressing the Dacoits, or organized robber-bands of India, 
took me upon the flat roof of the Residency, whence there is a 
fine panorama of Lucknow. Two-thirds of the city are as 
completely buried in foliage as the suburbs of Damascus. To the 
east, at a short distance, was the king's new palace, where he at 
present resides-r-a line of white walls and terraces, about half a 
mile in length, and topped with a mass of gilded towers and 
domes. Permission to visit it is not given without application 
two or three days previous, so that I was obliged to be content 
with an outside view. Near it is the palace of Feroze Buksh, 
another cluster of gilded domes, and in the distance the marble 
tower of the Martiniere. This is a college founded by General 
Martine, a French adventurer, who came out to India as a com- 
mon soldier, entered the service of the King of Oude, and died 
a millionnaire. The building, which is of marble, and in a style 
of architecture resembling nothing on Earth (nor, I should hope, 
in Heaven), was erected by him during his lifetime, as a palace 
for the King. The latter, however, refused to take it off his 
hands, secretly resolving to seize upon it as soon as the old 
General was dead. Martine, who knew much more of human 
nature than of architecture, determined to block this game of 
the King, and when he died, had himself buried in a vault 
made under the foundation of the building, where he still lies, 
with a company of soldiers in effigy, keeping guard over his re- 
mains. No Mussulman will sleep in a house where any one is 
buried and the King was obliged to respect the General's will, 



THE DOG AND THE ROSE-WATER. 223 

whicli deToted the building to a college, under tlie name of the 
Martiniere. 

To such an extent are the Kings of Oude plundered, that 
a French cook, who spent some years in the service of a former 
monarch, is reported to have gone home with a fortune of 
$350,000. It was recently discovered that one of the parasites 
of the Court had been receiving two seers (four lbs.) of rose-water 
and a jar of sweetmeats daily for thirty years — and for what 
service ? The father of the present King was annoyed, thirty 
years ago, by the barking of a dog. He sent for the owner, 
and commanded him to silence the animal. " Your Majesty," 
Baid the man, " nothing will stop his barking, unless he has two 
eeers of rose-water and a jar of sweetmeats given him every 
day." " Take them, then," said the King, " only let us have no 
more noise." Tbe knave took his rose-water and sweetmeats 
daily, and had lived luxuriously upon the proceeds for thirty 
years. 

The present King is even more foolish and credulous, al- 
though he has received a good literary education, and has the 
Persian poets at his tongue's end. Although not more than forty 
years old, his excesses have already reduced him to a state of 
impotence. Nevertheless, his wives and eunuchs flatter him 
that he has begotten a large number of children, who are car- 
ried off by a dem.on as soon as they are born. About once a 
week (so I was informed) the Chief Eunuch rushes into his pres- 
ence, exclaiming in great apparent joy, " Lord of the World, 
a son is born unto you ! " " Praise, be to G-od ! " exclaims the 
happy King; " which of my wives has been so highly honored ? " 
The eunuch names one of them, and the King rises in great 
haste to visit her and behold his new offspring. But sudden- 



5J24 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

ly cries <iiid shrieks resound from the women's apartments. A 
band of females bursts into the room, shrieking and lamenting. 
" great King ! a terrible demon suddenly appeared amongst 
us. He snatched your beautiful son out of the nurse's arms and 
flew through the window with a frightful noise." And so this 
trick is repeated from week to week, and the poor fool con- 
tinually laments over his lost children. 

Not long since a Portuguese mountebank happened to hear 
of this delusion. He repaired to the King, told him that he 
had discovered the nature of the demon that had molested him, 
and would destroy him, for a certain sum. The King agreed 
to the terms, and in a few days, the people of Lucknow were 
startled by seeing a great body of workmen engaged in dig- 
ging trenches in a meadow near the river. After several days' 
labor, they threw up a rude fortification of earth, in the centre 
of which they buried several barrels of powder. The Por- 
tuguese declared that he was in the possession of charms, which 
would entice the demon into the fort, whereupon the train 
should be fired, and instantly blow him to atoms. A favorable 
night was selected for the operation, and the inhabitants of the 
city were shaken out of their beds by a terrific explosion, fol- 
lowed by a salvo of 121 guns, as a peal of rejoicing over the 
slaughter of the demon. But alas ! the scattered fragments of 
the fiend rednited, and he has since then carried off nearly a 
score of the King's new-born progeny. 

This weakness of character, it may readily be imagined 
is the prime cause of the evils under which Oude is groaning, 
The Grand-Vizier is an unprincipled tyrant, and to such a de 
gree of resistance have the people been driven, that the reve 
Hues are collected yearly with cannon, and a large armed force, 



MISRULE IN OUDE. 225 

Oude is the garden of India, and though now so waste and ex- 
hausted, from a long course of spoliation, yields a revenue of 
three crores of rupees ($15,000,000), only one third of which 
reaches the King's hands. The rest is swallowed up by the band 
of venal sycophants who surround him. An officer who knew 
Oude in the reign of Saadet Ali, forty-five years ago, told me 
that he remembered the time when all the country from Luck- 
now to Benares bloomed like a garden and overflowed with 
plenty. Now it is waste, impoverished, and fast relapsing into 
jungle. Thousands of people annually make their escape over 
the frontier, into the Company's territories, and at Cawnpore 
it is not unusual to see them swimming the river under a vol- 
ley of balls from their pursuers. Great numbers of males of 
the lower classes enlist as sepoys, in the Company's regiments, 
and it is estimated that of 200,000 natives from all parts of 
India who now serve in the army, 40,000 are from Oude alone. 
Nevertheless, there is far more life, gaiety and appearance 
of wealth in Lucknow than any other native city in India. 
This is principally accounted for by the large sums that flow 
into the city from other quarters. The former monarchs of 
Oude, fearful of revolutions which might thrust their families 
from the succession, were in the habit of lending large sums to 
the East India Company, at an interest of five per cent., for 
the purpose of securing some property for their posterity, in 
case of trouble. Of late years the Company has declined to 
receive any more such loans, but still continues to pay interest 
on £6,000,000. At present many of the rich men of Oude in- 
vest their surplus funds in the Company's paper. There are 
besides many pensioners of the Government residing in Luck- 
now, and it is estimated that in addition to the interest paid, 120 
10* 



226 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

lacs of rupees ($5,000,000), come into Oude yearly from the 
Company's territories. 

In the afternoon, Capt. Sleeihan kindly offered to accom- 
pany me on a second excursion through Lucknow. We were 
joined by one of his friends, and mounted on three of the 
King's largest elephants. With our gilded howdahs, long crim- 
son housings, and the resplendent dresses of the drivers and 
umbrella-holders who sat behind us, on the elephants' rumps, 
we made as stately a show as any of the native princes. It was 
the fashionable hour for appearing in public, and, as we entered 
the broad street leading to the Roomee Derwazee, it was filled 
with a long string of horses and elephants, surging slowly 
through the dense crowd of pedestrians. We plunge boldly 
into the tumult, and, having the royal elephants, and footmen 
gifted with a ten-man power of lungs, make our way without 
difficulty. It is a barbaric pageant wholly to my liking, and 
as I stare solemnly at the gorgeous individuals on the elephants 
that pass us, I forget that I have not a turban around my 
brows. We duck our heads involuntarily, as we pass through 
the great gates, though the keystone is still twenty feet above 
them. 

We pass the Imambarra, and a long array of other buildings 
and at last halt^in front of the new mosque, which the King's 
mother is having built. It is large and picturesque, but shows 
a decline in architecture. The minarets are much too high. 
They have fallen down twice, and one of them is going to fall 
again. The domes are troubled with the same weakness, and, 
although the devout old lady has already spent $5,000,000 on 
the mosque, I doubt whether she will ever be able to finish it. 

Turning back, we plunge into the heart of the city — into 



A SQUEEZE OF ELEPHANTS. 227 

the dark J narrow, crooked old streets of the Lucknow of last 
century. The houses are three stories high, projecting so 
that the eaves almost touch, and exhibit the greatest variety 
in their design and ornament. My attention is divided 
between looking at them, and watching my elephant. The 
Btreet is so narrow and crooked that we run sonie risk of 
crushing our howdahs against the second-story balconies, 
but the beast, with his little, keen, calculating eye, knows 
precisely how far to go without striking. We pass several 
elephants safely, and are getting accustomed to the novel 
and intricate by-way, when up comes an enormous beast, 
ridden by a human elephant, in a green silk robe. The 
animal looks puzzled, and the man looks sullen, and vouch- 
safes us no greeting. He is a Cadi's secretary, it is true, 
but our elephants, being royal, take precedence of Lis. 
Neither beast will advance, for fear of wedging themselves 
together. At last my driver encourages his elephant; he 
tells him to press close against the wall and slip past; my 
howdah shoots under a balcony, but I bend profoundly and 
escape it. We press through, one after another, and the 
fat gentleman in the green silk gets awfully squeezed. 
Now we devote our attention to prying into the second 
stories of the houses, but the windows are all latticed, and 
ihere are sparkles through the lattices, which we take to 
be the flash of eyes. 

" Here is the gate where the heads of malefactors are 
exposed," says one of my companions, and I look up with 
a shuddering expectancy, thinking to see a bloody head spiked 
over the arch. But there is none at present, and we pass 
on to the place of execution — a muddy bank overhanging 



228 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

a sewer,» filled with the drainage of the city. Here the 
heads of the condemned are struck off, after the death- 
warrant has been thrice made out and signed by the king. 
This is a custom peculiar to Oude, and wisely adopted to 
prevent the ruler from shedding blood without due reflection. 
The first and second orders which the executioner receives 
are disregarded, and the culprit is not slain until the com- 
mand is repeated for the third time. 

We return through the Choke, the main street of the old 
city, after having penetrated for two miles into its depths. 
There is a crush of elephants, but the street has a tolerable 
breadth, and no accidents happen. We are on a level with 
the second-story balconies, which are now tenanted (as those 
in the Chandney Choke of Delhi) by the women of scarlet, 
arrayed in their fiaunting finery. We see now and then an 
individual of another class, which I should name if I dared — 
but there. are some aspects of human nature, which, from a 
regard for the character of the race, are tacitly kept secret. But 
see ! we have again emerged into the broad street and begin to 
descend the slope towards the river. The sun is setting, and 
the noises of the great city are subdued for the moment. The 
deep-green gardens lie in shadow, but all around us, far and 
near, the gilded domes are blazing in the yellow glow. The 
scene is lovely as the outer court of Paradise, yet what decep- 
tion, what crime, what unutterable moral degradation fester 
beneath its surface ! 



CHAPTER XVIII, 

ALLAHABAD, AND A HINDOO FESTIVAL. 

Eeturn to Cawnpore— An Accident— The Eoad to Allahabad— Sensible Pilgrims- 
Morning — Beauty of Allahabad — The American Missionaries — ^The Hindoo Festival 
— The Banks of the Ganges— Hindoo Devotees — Expounding the Yedas— The Place 
of Hair— A Pilgrim Shorn and Fleeced — The Place of Flags — Venality of the Brah- 
mins — Story of the Contract for Grass — Junction of the Ganges and Jumna — Bathing 
of the Pilgrims — A Sermon — The Mission — Subterranean Temple — The Fort of 
Allahabad. 

I LEFT Lucknow at nine o'clock ou the evening of the 11th, 
in the garree for Cawnpore. I was unable to sleep, from 
toothache, and was lying with shut eyes, long^n^ for the 
dawn, when there was a jar that gave me a violent thump on 
the head, and one side of the garree was heaved into the air, 
but after a pause righted itself The horse started off at full 
speed, dragging the wreck after him, but was soon stopped, 
and I jumped out, to find the spring broken, and the hind- 
wheels so much injured that we were obliged to leave the 
vehicle in the road. The driver had no doubt fallen asleep, 
and the horse, going at his usual rapid rate, had hurled the 
garree against a tree. Leaving the groom to take charge of 
the remains, the driver took the mall-bag on his head, my car- 
pet-bag in his hand, and led the horse toward Cawupore. I 



230 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

followed' him, and we trudged silently forwar-ds for -an hour 
and a half, when we reached the Ganges, at daybreak. It was 
lucky that the accident happened so near the end of the journey. 

The same afternoon I left Cawnpore for Allahabad, in a 
garree, as usual. Still the same interminable plains, though 
the landscape became richer as I proceeded southward, except 
when the road approached the Ganges, where there are fre- 
quent belts of sandy soil, worn into deep gullies by the rain. 
The fields of barley were in full head, the mustard in blossom, 
and the flowers of the mango-tree were beginning to open. 
The afternoon was warm and the road very dusty. I passed 
the town of Futtehpore at dusk, but experienced an hour's 
delay during the night, which I was at a loss to account for 
until I found the next morning that the driver had taken two 
natives on the roof of the garree, as passengers to Allahabad. 
They were pilgrims to the Festival, and were thus depriving 
themselves of the greatest merit of the pilgrimage, which 
consists in making the journey on foot. There is now quite 
a sharp discussion going on among the learned pundits, as to 
whether the merit of a religious pilgrimage will be destroyed 
by the introduction of railroads. That railroads will be built 
in the course of time, is certain ; that thousands of pilgrims 
will then make use of them, is equally certain; a prospect 
which fills the old and orthodox Brahmins with great alarm. 

I passed a dreary night, martyred by the toothache. 
"When the sun rose I saw the Ganges in tlie distance, and the 
richness and beauty of the scenery betokened my approach to 
Allahabad. The plain was covered with a deluge of the richest 
grain, fast shooting into head, and dotted with magnificent 
gfoves of neem and mango trees The road was thronged 



BEAUTY OF ALLAHRABAD. 231 

with pilgrims, returning from the Festival, and the most of 
them, women as well as men, carried large earthen jars of 
Ganges water suspended to the ends of a pole which rested on 
their shoulders. In spite of the toils of the journey and the 
privations they must have undergone, they all had a com- 
posed, contented look, as if the great object of their lives had 
been accomplished. 

In two hours I reached the Allahabad Cantonments, but 
failing to find the residence of Mr. Owen, of the American 
Mission, I directed the driver to take me to the hotel. On 
the way we passed through the native town, which abounds in 
temples and shrines. Flags were flying in all directions, 
drums beating, and several processions could be discovered 
marching over the broad plain which intervenes between the 
town and the fort. The day was gloriously clear and balmy, 
and the foliage of the superb neem and tamarind trees that 
shade the streets, sparkled in the light. I remembered the 
story of the Mohammedan Conquerors, who were so enchanted 
with the beauty of the country, and so well satisfied with the 
mild and peaceable demeanor of the inhabitants, who gave up 
the place without striking a blow, that they named it Allaha- 
bad — the City of God. Its original name was Priag, a Hin- 
doo word signifying " the Junction," on account of the con- 
fluence of the Ganges and the Jumna. 

The first face I saw at the hotel was that of a fellow- 
traveller across the Desert, whom I had last seen at Suez. 
He had just come up from Calcutta, on his way to Lahore. 
I saw but little of him, a,i Mr. Owen insisted on my taking a 
room at his house, where I was again on American soil, on the 
banks of the Jumna. I have rarely passed a day more agree- 



232 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

ably thswi in his pleasant family circle, which was enlarged 
in the evening by the presence of his colleagues, the Rev. 
Messrs. Shaw and Hay. The American Missionaries in 
India, wherever I have met them, were to me what the Latin 
monks in Palestine were, but not like the latter, with a latent 
hope of reward. They are all earnest, zealous and laborious 
men, and some of them, among whom I may mention Mr. 
Owen, and Mr. Warren, of Agra, are ripe scholars in the 
Oriental languages and literature. 

Mr. Owen had an appointment to preach to the natives in 
the afternoon, and I accompanied him to the scene of the 
festival, on the banks of the Ganges. The climax of the oc- 
casion was past, and the great body of the pilgrims had de- 
parted for their homes, but there were still several thousands 
encamped in and around the town. On the plain, near the 
Ganges, stood an extempore town, consisting of streets of 
booths, kept by the native merchants, who took care of their 
temporal and spiritual welfare at the same time, with a dex- 
terity which would have done credit to a Yankee. Upon 
mounting a dyke which had been erected to restrain the water 
of the Ganges during inundations, I again beheld the Holy 
Kiver and its sandy and desolate shores. It was indeed a 
cheerless prospect — a turbid flood in the midst, and a hot, 
dreary glare of white sand on either side. The bank of the 
river, from the point where we stood to its junction with the 
Jumna — a distance of nearly half a mile — was covered with 
shrines, flags, and the tents of the fakeers, which consisted 
merely of a cotton cloth thrown over a piece of bamboo. 
There were hundreds of so-called holy men, naked except a sin- 
gle cotton rag, and with their bodies covered with ashes or a 



HINDOO DEVOTEES EXPOUNDING THE VEDAS. 233 

yellow powder, which gave them an appearance truly hideous. 
Their hair was long and matted, and there was a wild gleam 
in their eyes which satisfied me that their fanatical character 
was not assumed. Many of them were young men, with keen, 
spirited faces, but the same token of incipient monomania in 
their eyes. Some few were seated on the ground, or in the 
shade of their rude tents, rapt in holy abstraction, but the 
most of them walked about in a listless way, displaying their 
disgusting figures to the multitude. 

The shrines, of which there were great numbers, were taw- 
dry affairs of tinsel and colored paper, with coarse figures of 
Mahadeo, Ganeish, Hanuman and other deities. Many were 
adorned with flowers, and had been recently refreshed with the 
water of the Granges. I was struck with the figure of an old 
grey-bearded saint, who was expounding the Yedas to a Brah- 
min, who, seated cross-legged under a large umbrella, read sen- 
tence after sentence of the sacred writing. The old fellow 
showed so much apparent sincerity and satisfaction, and was so 
fluent in his explanations, that I was quite delighted with him. 
Indeed, there was not the slightest approach to levity manifest- 
ed by any one present. 

We threaded the crowd of ghastly Jogees, Gosains and 
other ashy fakeers, to the Place of Hair-Cutting — an enclosed 
spot, containing about an acre and a half of ground. Here the 
heads and beards of the pilgrims are shorn, a million of years in 
Paradise being given by the gods for every hair so offered up. 
The ground within the enclosure was carpeted with hair, and 
I am told that on great occasions it is literally knee-deep. 
There were only two persons undergoing the operation, and as 
I wished to inspect it more closely, I entered the enclosure. 



234 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

When llie repugnance wliicli the Hindoos have toward destroy- 
ing animal life is understood, the reader will comprehend that 
I did not venture among so much hair without some hesitation. 
A fellow with a head of thick black locks and a bushy beard 
had just seated himself on the earth. We asked him who he 
was and whence he came. He was a Brahmin from Futtehpore, 
who had made a pilgrimage from Hurdwar, where he had 
filled a vessel with Ganges water, which he was now taking to 
pour upon the shrine of Byznath, beyond Benares. In reward 
for this a Brahmin who was standing near assured us that he 
would be born a Brahmin the next time that his soul visited 
the earth. The barber took hold of a tuft on the top of his 
head, which he spared, and rapidly peeled off flake after flake of 
the bushy locks. In less than five minutes the man's head and 
face were smooth as an infant's, and he was booked for fifty 
thousand million years in Paradise. But the change thereby 
wrought upon his countenance was most remarkable. Instead 
of being a bold, dashing, handsome fellow, as he at first ap- 
peared, his physiognomy was mean, spiritless, and calculated 
to inspire distrust. I should not want better evidence that 
Nature gave men beards to be worn, and not to be shaven. 

As soon as the shearing was finished, three Brahmins who 
had been hovering around carried the subject off to be fleeced. 
They were sharp fellows, those Brahmins, and I warrant they 
bled him to the last pice. The Brahmins of Allahabad are not 
to be surpassed for their dexterity in obtaining perquisites. 
They have apportioned India into districts, and adjoining the 
Place of Hair they have their Place of Flags, where there 
are upwards of two hundred flags streaming from high poles. 
The devices on these flags represent the different districts. 



STORY OF THE CONTRACT FOR GRASS. 235 

The pilgrim seeks the flag of his district, and there he finds 
the Brahmin licensed to take charge of him. There is no fixed 
fee, but every man is taxed to the extent of his purse. One 
of the Rajahs of Oude, who had been shorn a short time pre- 
vious to my arrival, gave the fraternity six elephants and the 
weight of a fat infant son in Cashmere shawls and silver. 

In justice to the Brahmin caste, I should remark that 
those who serve as priests in the temples are not to be con- 
founded with the secular Brahmins, many of whom are fine 
scholars, and enlightened and liberal-minded men. But the 
priesthood is perhaps more corrupt than any similar class 
in the world. They do not even make a pretence of hon- 
esty. An acquaintance of mine bargained with some Alla- 
habad Brahmins to supply him with grass for thatching his 
house. They showed him a satisfactory sample, and he agreed 
to pay them a certain price. But when the grass came it was 
much worse than the sample, and he refused to pay them full 
price. The matter was referred for arbitration to three other 
Brahmins, who decided in the gentleman's favor. But the con- 
tractors declared they would have the full price. " Why do you 
not bring me good grass, then? " said the gentleman. " Because 
we have it not," they answered. " Why then did you send 
me such a sample? " " To make you contract with us," was 
the cool reply. " You may take the quarrel into Court, for I 
shall not pay you," declared the gentleman. " We shall not 
go to Court, for we shall certainly lose the cause," said they ; 
" but we will have the money." Thereupon they went to the 
carpenter who was building the house, and who was a Hindoo, 
related the case, and called upon him to make up the full sum. 
The astonished victim declared that it was no afiair of his. " No 



236 INDIA, CEIXA, AND JAPAN 

matter," said they, " if you don't pay it, one of us will commit 
Buicidq, and his blood will be upon your head'' — this being the 
most terrible threat which can be used against a Hindoo. 
The carpenter still held out, but when the oldest of the Brah- 
mins had decided to kill himself, and was uncovering his body 
for the purpose, the rictim was obliged to yield, and went off in 
tears to borrow the money. Truly, this thing of caste is the 
curse of India. 

Passing the Place of Flags, where the streamers were of 
all imaginable colors and devices, we descended to the holiest 
spot, the junction of the Granges and Jumna. According to the 
Hindoos, iliree rivers meet here, the third being the Seriswat- 
tee, which has its source in Paradise, and thence flows subterra- 
neously to the Ganges. There were a number of bamboo plat- 
forms extending like steps to the point where the muddy waters 
of the Ganges touched the clear blue tide of the Jumna. [In 
this union of a clear and a muddy stream, forming one great 
river, there is a curious resemblance to the Mississippi and Mis- 
souri, and to the Blue and White Niles.] Several boats, contain- 
ing flower-decked shrines, with images of the gods, were moored 
on the Jumna side, the current of the Ganges being exceedingly 
rapid. The natives objected to our getting upon the platforms, 
as they were kana, or purified, and our touch would defile them, 
so we stood in the mud for a short time, and witnessed the 
ceremony of bathing. The Hindoos always bathe with a cloth 
around the loins, out of respect for the Goddess Gungajee. 
There were about a dozen in the water, bobbing up and down, 
bowing their heads to the four points of the ijompass, and mut- 
tering invocations. Others, standing upon the bank, threw 
wreaths of yellow flowers upon the water. On our return to 



THE AMERICAN MISSION. 237 

the encampment of the fakeers, we visited a pit-shrine of Ha- 
numan, the monkey god, who helped Rama in his conquest of 
Ceylon. He lies on his back in a deep hole, and is a hideous 
monster, about twelve feet long, carved out of a single piece of 
stone. Several natives were prostrating themselves in the dust, 
around the mouth of the pit. 

Mr. Owen preached for half an hour in the mission tent 
among the fakeers. A number of natives flocked around, list- 
ening attentively, and made no disturbance, though two or three 
of them were Jogees of the most fanatical kind. They were 
apparently interested, but not touched. Indeed, so deeply root- 
ed are these people in their superstitions, that to awake a true 
devotional feeling among them must be a matter of great diffi- 
culty. In the evening I attended Divine service in the Mission 
Church, and was much pleased with the earnest and serious air 
of the native converts. They were all neatly dressed and be- 
haved with the utmost propriety. The Missionaries have in- 
structed four natives, who were ordained as ministers, under 
the names of Paul, Thomas, George and Jonas. The mission 
school was attended by three hundred pupils, the most of whom 
were natives, and all received religious instruction. There is 
also a printing office under the charge of the Rev. Mr. Hay, m 
which, during the previous year, six millions of pages, in the 
Hindoo, Urdoo, and Persian languages had been printed. 
The Lieut. Grovernor of the Northwest, during his visit to 
Allahabad, spoke in public in the highest terms of the labors 
of the American Missionaries. 

On my way to the fort the next morning, with Mr. Owen, 
we met one of the Ameers of Scinde, who was a prisoner at 
large in Hindostan. In the fort three princes of Nepaul were 



238 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

kept ia very strict confinement, on account of having been en^ 
gaged in a conspiracy. The most remarkable thing in the fort 
is a subterranean temple, evidently of great antiquity. It 
consists of a single low hall, supported by square pillars, and 
contains many figures of Mahadeo in niches around the walls, 
and a quantity of lingams scattered over the floor. There is a 
narrow passage issuing from it which has not been explored. 
Some of the Brahmins say it leads to Benares, and others to 
Hell. In the centre of the fort stands a column of red sand- 
stone, resembling the iron pillar at Delhi, and with an inscrip- 
tion in the Pali character. The arsenal, which occupies part 
of the zenana of the Emperor Akbar, is the largest in India. 
In other respects the fort is not remarkable, though, having 
been repaired by the English, it is in better condition to stand 
an attack than the immense shells which tower over Agra and 
Delhi. 



I 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE HOLY CITY OF INDIA. 

Crossing the Ganges — Pilgrims Eeturning Home — Vagaries of the Horses — Benares — 
Prof. Hall— The Holy City— Its Sanctity— The Sanscrit College— Novel Plan of 
Education— Village of Native Christians— The Streets of Benares— Sacred Bulls — 
Their Sagacity and Cunning— The Golden Pagoda— Hindoo Architecture — Worship 
of the Lingam— Temple of the Indian Ceres— The Banks of the Ganges — Bathinj 
Devotees— Prepe-ations for Departure. 

At noon, on Monday, the 14th, I left the hospitable roof of 
Mr. Owen, at Allahabad. On reaching the Ganges, I found the 
drawbridge open, and a string of upward bound vessels passing 
through. There were thirty-nine in all, and so slowly were they 
towed against the stream, that full two hours elapsed, and I 
still sat there ii> the heat, contemplating the white and glaring 
sand-flats of the opposite shore. There was an end of it at 
last ; my garrec was pushed across, and over the sands, by a 
crowd of eager coolies, and having attained the hard, mac- 
adamized road, shaded by umbrageous peepul and neem trees, 
I whirled away rapidly toward Benares. My road lay along 
the northern bank of the Ganges, through a very rich and 
beautiful country. The broad fields of wheat and barley jusi 
coming into head, were picturesquely broken by " topes " of 



240 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

the dark mango or the feathery tamarind, and groves of the 
brab palm. It was a land of harvest culture, with all the 
grace of sylvan adornment which distinguishes a park of plea- 
sure. 

The road was thronged with pilgrims returning from the 
great mela^ or fair, of Allahabad. During the afternoon I 
passed many thousands, who appeared to be of the lowest and 
poorest castes of the Hindoos. They all carried earthen jars, 
filled with the sacred water of the Junction (of the Ganges 
and Jumna), which they were taking to pour upon the shrinea 
of Benares or Byznath. At the stations where I changed 
horses, they crowded around the garree, begging vociferously : 
" great Being, an alms for Shiva's sake ! " One half-naked, 
dark-eyed boy of ten years, accosted me in fluent Arabic, ex- 
claiming : " great lord, may Peace repose upon your turban ! " 
with such a graceful and persuasive air that he did not need to 
ask twice. But for the others, it was necessary to be both blind 
and deaf, for there was no charm in the serpent-armed Destroyer 
to extort what had been given in the sacred name of Peace. 
As night approached, the crowds thickened, and the yells of 
my driver opened a way through their midst for the rapid 
garree. They moved in a cloud of dust, of their own raising, 
and I had no comfort until the darkness obliged them to halt 
by the roadside and around the villages, after which the atmos- 
phere became clearer, and the road was tolerably free from 
obstruction. 

The horses, however, gave me no peace, and every change, 
at the relay stations, seemed to be for the worse. After balk- 
ing at the start, they would dash off in fury, making the body 
of the garree swing from side to side at every bound, till a crash 



VAGARIES or THE HOUSES. 241 

of some kind appeared inevitable. One of these careers was 
through a long and crowded village, in which a market was be- 
ing held. I did not count how many times mj flying wheels 
grazed the piles of earthenware, and the heaps of grain and 
vegetables, but I know that there were screams of alarm, ges- 
ticulations, fright and confusion, from one end of the village to 
the other, and how we ran the gauntlet without leaving a wake 
of ruin behind us, is a mystery which I cannot explain. I 
gradually became too weary to notice these aberrations of the 
propelling force, and sinking down into the bottom of the gar- 
ree, fell into a sleep from which I was awakened at midnight 
by the driver's voice. I looked out, saw a large Gothic church 
before me, in the moonlight, and knew by that token that the 
goal was reached. 

The next morning I called upon my countryman, Sir. Fitz- 
Edv,^ard Hall, to whom I had letters, and, according to Indian 
custom, immediately received the freedom of his bungalow, 
Mr. Hall, who is a native of Troy, New York, is Professor of 
Sanscrit in the Sanscrit College at Benares, and enjoys a high 
and deserved reputation throughout India for his attainments, 
not only in the classic language of the Brahmins, but also in 
the Hindoo and Urdee tongues. With his assistance I was 
enabled to take a hasty but very interesting survey of Be- 
nares, witnin the two days to which my stay was limited. 

Benares, the Holy City of the Hindoos, and one of the most 
ancient in India, lies upon the northern bank of the Ganges, 
at the point where it receives the waters of the two small trib- 
utaries, the Burna and Arsee, from whose united names is de- 
rived that of the town. All junctions of other rivers with 
the Ganges are sacred, but that of the Jumna and the invisible 
11 



a42 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

Seriswaiftee at Allaliabad, surpasses all others in holiness. 
Nevertheless, Benares, from having been the spot where Maha- 
deo (if I am not mistaken), made his last avaiar^ or incarnate 
appearance on the earth, is so peculiarly sanctified that all per- 
sons who live within a circuit of five miles — even the abhorred 
Mussulman and the beef-eating English — ^go to Paradise, 
whether they wish it or no. According to the gospel of the 
Brahmins, the city and that portion of territory included with- 
in the aforesaid radius of five miles, is not, like all the rest of the 
earth's bulk, balanced upon the back of the great Tortoise, but up 
held upon the points of Shiva's trident. In this belief they boldly 
affirmed that though all other parts of the world might be 
shaken to pieces, no earthquake could affect the stability of 
Benares — until 1828, when without the least warning towers 
and temples were thrown dowu, hundreds of persons buried in the 
wreck, and half built quays and palaces so split and sunken, 
that the boastful builders left off their work, which stands at 
this day in the same hideous state of ruin. This mundane 
city, however (they say), is but a faint shadow, a dim reflection 
of the real Benares, which is built upon a plain half-way be- 
tween Earth and Heaven. 

The English cantonments encircle the old Hindoo city. 
Owing to the deep, dry beds of the small rivers, scarring the 
rather arid level which it covers, the settlement has not the 
home-like, pleasing features of others in Hindostan. There are 
a few handsome private mansions, a spacious church, and the 
new Sanscrit College, which is considered the finest mo lern 
edifice in India. To those who are familiar with the East In- 
dia Company's efforts in this line, such an opinion will not 
raise very high expectations. The College is o G-othic cross — ■ 



THE SANSCRIT COLLEGE. 243 

a reminiscence of Oxford, and beautiful as it is in many re- 
spects, we should prefer something else, to project against a 
background of palms and tamarinds. It is built of the soft rose- 
colored sandstone of Chenar, and the delicate beauty of its but- 
tresses and pinnacles, wrought in this material, make us regret 
that the architect had not availed himself of the rich stores of 
Saracenic art, which the mosques and tombs of the Mogul Em- 
perors afford him. Gothic architecture does not, and never can 
be made to harmonize with the forms of a tropical landscape. 

The plan of this College is unique and has of late been the 
subject of much criticism. It was established by the East India 
Company sixty-three years ago, for the purpose of instructing the 
children of Brahmins in the Sanscrit Philosophy and Litera- 
ture, and since the construction of the new building, the Eng- 
lish College has been incorporated with it. The Principal, 
Dr. Ballantyne, who is probably the profoundest Sanscrit 
scholar living, has taken advantage of this junction to set on 
foot an experiment, which, if successful, will produce an entire 
revolution in the philosophy of the Brahmins. The native scholars 
in the English College are made acquainted with the inductive 
philosophy of Bacon, while the students of Sanscrit take as a 
text-book the Nyaya system, as it is called, of Guatama, the 
celebrated Hindoo philosopher. There are many points of ap- 
proach in these two systems, and Dr. Ballantyne has been led 
to combine them in such a way as finally to place the student, 
who commences with the refined speculations of Guatama, up- 
on the broad and firm basis of the Baconian system. The lat- 
ter is thus prepared to receive the truths of the physical sci- 
ences, a knowledge of which must gradually, but inevitably, 
overthrow the gorgeous enormities of his religious faith. 



244 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

After visiting Mr. Eeid, the Commissioner of the District, 
Mr. Hall accompanied me to the Mission establishment of the 
English Church. Here there is a small village of native 
Christians, whom I could not but compassionate. Cut off for 
ever from intercourse with their friends, denounced as un- 
clean and accursed, they showed their isolation by a quiet, pa- 
tient demeanor, as if they passively sustained their new faith, 
instead of actively rejoicing in it. There was, however, a visi- 
ble improvement in their households — greater cleanliness and 
order, and the faces of the women, I could not but notice, 
showed that the teachings of the missionaries had not been 
lost upon them. I wish I could have more faith in the sin- 
cerity of these converts ; but the fact that there is a material 
gain, no matter how slight, in becoming Christian, throws a 
doubt upon the verity of their spiritual regeneration. If lack- 
ing employment, they are put in the way of obtaining it ; if 
destitute, their wants are relieved; and when gathered into 
communities, as here, they are furnished with dwellings rent- 
free. While I cheerfully testify to the zeal and faithfulness 
of those who labor in the cause, I must confess that I have 
not yet witnessed any results which satisfy me that the vast 
expenditure of money, talent and life in missionary enterpri- 
ses, has been adequately repaid. 

I spent a day in the streets and temples of Benares. As a 
city it presents a more picturesque and impressive whole than 
either Delhi or Lucknow, though it has no such traces of ar- 
chitectural splendor as those cities. The streets are narrow and 
crooked, but paved with large slabs of sandstone ; the houses 
are lofty, substantial structures of wood, with projecting sto- 
ries, and at every turn the eye rests upon the gilded conical 



THE SACRED BULLS OF BENARES. 245 

domes of a Hindoo temple or the tall minaret of a Mohamme- 
dan mosque. It is a wilderness of fantastic buildings, in which 
you are constantly surprised by new and striking combinations 
and picturesque effects of light and shade. I should have been 
content to wander about at random in the labyrinth, but my 
companion insisted on going at once to the Golden Pagoda, or 
great temple of Mahadeo, and thither we accordingly went. 

The narrow streets were obstructed, in the vicinity of the 
temple, with numbers of the sacred bulls. Benares swarms 
with these animals, which are as great a nuisance to the place 
as the mendicant friars are to Rome, They are knowing bulls, 
perfectly conscious of their sacred character, and presume up- 
on it to commit all sorts of depredations. They are the terror 
of the dealers in fruits and vegetables, for, although not al- 
ways exempted from blows, no one can stand before their horns 
— and these they do not scruple to use, if necessary to secure 
their ends. Sometimes, on their foraging expeditions, they 
boldly enter the houses, march up stairs and take a stroll on 
the flat roofs, where they may be seen, looking down with a 
quiet interest on the passing crowds below. From these emi- 
nences they take a survey of the surrounding country, calcu- 
late its resources, and having selected one of the richest spots 
within their circles of vision, descend straightway, and set off 
on a bee-line for the place, which they never fail to find. 
When the fields look promising on the other side of the Gan- 
ges, they march down to the river banks, and prevent any 
passenger from going on board the ferry-boats until they are 
permitted to enter. They cross and remain there until the 
supplies are exhausted, when they force a passage back in the 
same manner. The gardens of the English residents frequently 



246 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN, 

Buffer from their depredations, and the only effectual way of 
guarding against them is to yoke them at once, and to keep 
them at hard labor for a day or two, which so utterly disgusts 
them with the place that they never return to it. It is also 
affirmed that they carefully avoid the neighborhood of those 
butchers who supply the tables of the English, having observed 
that some of their brethren disappeared in a mysterious man- 
ner, after frequenting such localities. 

We were fortunate in our visit to the Golden Pagoda, for 
it was one of the god's festival days, and the court and shrines 
of the temple were thronged with crowds of worshippers. The 
most of them brought wreaths of flowers and brass vessels of 
Ganges water, to pour upon the symbols of the divinity. The 
Pagoda is built of red sandstone, which seems to have grown 
darker and richer by age, and by contrast with the blazing 
gold of its elaborate spires, has a wonderfully gorgeous appear- 
ance. The style of architecture is essentially the same in all 
Hindoo temples. The body of the structure is square and 
massive, enclosing the shrine of the god. From a cornice of 
great breadth, and often covered with sculptured ornaments, 
rises a tall spire, of parabolic outlines, which has the look of 
being formed by an accretion of smaller spires of similar form. 
It has a general resemblance to a pine-apple or rugged pine- 
cone. Where the temple is enclosed within a court, as in this 
instance, there are usually a number of separate shrines, and 
the clusters of spires and small ornamental pinnacles, entirely 
covered with gilding, form a picture of barbaric pomp not un- 
worthy the reputed wealth " of Ormuz or of Ind." The 
shrines stood within dusky recesses or sanctuaries, lighted by 
lamps filled with cocoa-nut oil. They were in charge of 



WORSHIP OF THE LINGAM. 247 

priests or neophyteSj who offered us wreaths of jasmine-blossoms, 
fragrant^ and moist with Ganges water. I was about to ac- 
cept some of them, but Mr. Hall requested me not to do so, as 
the act was one of worship, and would be looked upon as 
showing respect to Mahadeo. 

The body of the temple abounded with stone images of the 
lingam, on all of which lay wreaths of flowers, while the wor- 
shippers, male and female, poured over them the water of the 
sacred river. The worship was performed quietly and decently, 
with every outward appearance of respect, and there was 
nothing in the symbols themselves, or the ceremonies, to give 
foundation to the charges which have been made, of the ob- 
scenity or immorality of this feature of the Hindoo faith. 
The lingam is' typical of the creative principle, and by no 
means to be confounded with the Priapus of the Greeks ; it 
rather points to the earlier johallic worship of the Egyptians, 
with which it was no doubt coeval. There is a profound philo- 
sophical truth hidden under the singular forms of this worship, 
if men would divest themselves for a moment of a prudery with 
regard to such subjects, which seems to be the affectation of the 
present age. So far from the Hindoos being a licentious peo- 
ple, they are far less so than the Chinese on one hand or the 
Mussulmen on the other, and from what I can learn, they are 
quite as moral as any race to which the tropical sun has given 
an ardent temperament and a brilliant vitality of physical life. 

I also visited the temple of Unna-Purna — one of the 
names of the Goddess Bhavani, the Indian Ceres. It stands 
on a platform of masonry, surrounded by a range of smaller 
shrines. Hundreds of worshippers — ^mostly peasants from the 
surrounding country, were marching with a quick step around 



248 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

the temple, witli their offerings in their hands. The shrine of 
the Goddess was so crowded that I had some difficulty in ob- 
taining a view of her dusky figure. The gay, cheerful aspect of 
the votaries, with their garlands of flowers and brazen urns 
of water, recalled to my mind the Eleusinian Festivals of 
Greece, and the words of Schiller's Hymn flashed into my 
memory : 

" Windet zum Kranze die goldenen JEhren 1 " 

We afterwards went down to the Ganges, and wandered 
along, past shattered palaces, sunken quays, temples thrown 
prostrate, or leaning more threateningly than the belfry of Pisa, 
through a wilderness of fantastic and magnificent forms^ 
watching the crowds bathing in the reeking tanks, or the open 
waters of the river. Broad stone ghauts (flights of steps) 
covered the bank, rising from the river to the bases of stately 
buildings, fifty or sixty feet above. The Ganges here makes a 
broad bend to the northward, and from these ghauts, near the 
centre, we saw on either hand the horns of the crescent-shaped 
city, with their sweeps of temples, towers and minarets glit- 
tering in the sun. A crowd of hudgerows, or river boats, 
were moored all along the bank, or slowly moved, with white 
sails spread, against the current. The bathers observed the 
same ceremonies as I had noticed at Allahabad, and were quite 
decorous in their movements, the men retaining the dJiotee, or 
cotton cloth twisted about the loins. The Hindoos are great- 
ly shocked by the English soldiers, who go naked to the em- 
braces of the Goddess Gunga, — not from that circumstance as 
connected with bathing, but as a want of respect to the holy 
stream. I finished my visit to the city, by taking a boat and 



PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE. 249 

slowly floating down the Ganges in front of it, until its con- 
fused array of palaces, and ghauts, and golden spires was in- 
delibly daguerrotyped upon my memory. 

The necessity of reaching Calcutta in time for the Hong 
Kong steamer of the last of February, obliged me to refuse 
an invitation to a week's tiger-hunting in the jungles of the 
Vindhya Hills — a prospect which I did not relinquish without 
some bitter regrets. I thereupon made preparations for my 
last " garree-dawk " of 430 miles, with a pleasant prospect of 
a bruised head or broken bones, for after so many narrow es- 
capes, I decided that I either bore a charmed life, or my share 
of injury was near at hand. 



C H APT EE XX. 

THE ROAD FROM BENARES TO CALCUTTA. 

Moonlight on the Ganges— The Unholy River— Scenery of the Plains — Egyptian 
Landscapes — Sasseram — Mountains near the Soane River — View of the Ford — 
Crossing — The Second Day's Journey — ^Tbe Hills of Behar — Meeting with an Ac- 
quaintance — Wild Table-Land — Sunset— A Coolie Trick — The Aborigines of India — 
Triumph of the Eed-haired Lady— Horse Gymnastics — The Lady Defeated — Mun- 
glepore — An Eccentric Night-Journey — The City of Burdwaii- Tropical Scenery — 
Wrecked on the Road — A "Wrathful Delay — "Wrecked again — Journey by Moonlight 
—Another "Wreck — An Insane Horse— The Hoogly River — Yet Another Accident— 
A Morning Parade — The End of " Garree-Dawk." 

It was nearly midnight, on the 16th of February, when I 
left a genial company of Benares residents, and started on my 
lonely journey to Calcutta. My conductor did not pass through 
the city, but drove around it to Raj Grhaut, five miles distant. 
The horse was unharnessed, the carriage dragged down the 
bank by coolies, and deposited on a ferry-boat. I stretched 
myself comfortably on the mattress, propped against a carpet- 
bag, and looked out on the beautiful moonlit river. No spice- 
lamps, set afloat by amorous Hindoo maidens, starred the sil- 
very smoothness of the tide. Alas, I fear that the poetry of 
the Indian world is in a rapid decline. There was no sound 



THE UNHOLY RIVER. 251 

during our passage but the light dip of oars, and the shores^ 
faintly touched by the rays of the setting moon, were wrapped 
in the hush of slumber. Thus, with a solemn, scarcely percep- 
tible motion, I was ferried across the sacred river. 

A plank road led over the sandy flats on the opposite side, 
and my horse required the assistance of half a dozen coolies, 
to reach the level of the cultivated land. We rolled on at a 
lively pace through the night, and the rising sun found me at 
Durgowtee, thirty-six miles from Benares.. Here a handsome 
suspension bridge crosses the river Karamnasa, the waters of 
which are so unholy as to destroy the whole merit of a jour- 
ney to Benares, should they touch the pilgrim's feet. The 
bridge was built by a late Bajah of Benares, to prevent the 
thousands of pilgrims who pass along this road, from forfeiting 
the reward of their devotion. Notwithstanding this act of 
pious charity, the Rajah was so unpopular among his people, 
that they considered it very unlucky to mention his name be- 
fore breakfast. The country was still a dead level, and though 
dry at this season, is marshy during the rains. The last season 
had injured the road greatly, so that for a distance of twenty 
or thirty miles, but little of it was passable. A rough tempo- 
rary track had been made beside it, and hundreds of workmen 
were employed in constructing bridges over the nullas, and re- 
pairing the embankments. The country, at first almost bare 
of trees, and covered with but moderate crops, gradually be- 
came warmer and richer in its aspect. The vegetation increas- 
ed in luxuriance, and the profusion of the brab palm spoke of 
the neighborhood of the tropics. The villages were shaded 
with huge banyans, peepuls and other umbrageous trees. The 
Vindhya Mountains appeared blue and distant in the south- 



252 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

west, and a nearer range in front marked my approach to the 
Soane River. 

The landscapes reminded me more of Egypt than any other 
part of India. There was the same summer richness in the 
foliage of the trees, the same vivid green in the broad fields of 
wheat and barley, then fast ripening, and the same luxury of 
color in the patches of blossoming poppy. But the air, instead 
of the crystalline purity of the Egyptian atmosphere, was " 
steeped in a glowing blue vapor — softened by a filmy veil of 
languor and repose. The sun poured down a summer glow, 
though a light breeze now and then ran over the fields, and 
rolled along the road in clouds of whirling dust. Notwith-" 
standing my lazy enjoyment of the scenery, I found my appe- 
tite gradually becoming sharper, and was not sorry to reach 
the large town of Sasseram, where I halted at the bungalow 
long enough to procure an afternoon breakfast. Resuming my 
journey, I reached the banks of the Soane River about five 
o'clock. The mountains on the left, which follow its course, 
cease at the distance of some miles from the road, whence they 
have the appearance of a long bluff promontory, projecting into 
the sea. In advance of the last headland rises an isolated 
peak with a forked top, precisely as I have seen a craggy island 
standing alone, off the point of a cape. There is no doubt 
that Central and Southern India at one time constituted an 
immense island, separated from the main land of Asia by a 
sea whose retrocession gave to the light the great plains of 
Hindostan and the Indus. 

The Soane is believed to be the Erranoboas of the old 
Greek geographers, and at his junction with the Ganges they 
located the great city of Palibothra. He has a royal bed in 



CROSSING THE SOANE RIVER. 253 

which to roll his waters, which were then shrunken to a shal- 
low flood by the dry season. Standing on the western hank, the 
channel stretched away before me to a breadth of nearly four 
miles — a waste of bare yellow sand, threaded by the blue arms 
of the river. . Here and there companies of men and oxen 
dotted its surface, and showed the line of the ford. The tents 
of those who were waitino; to cross on the morrow were 
pitched on the bank, and the gleam of fires kindled near them 
shone out ruddily as the sun went down. It was a grand and 
impressive scene, notwithstanding its sombre and monotonous 
hues. Such, I imagine, must be the fords of our own Nebras- 
ka, during the season of emigration. I paid an official of 
some kind two rupees, after which my horse was unharnessed, 
and three yoke of oxen attached to the garree. Descending 
to the river bank a short distance above, the garree was put 
upon a ferry-boat, to be taken across the deepest part, while 
the bullocks were driven through to await us on the other side. 
The main stream is about half a mile wide, and beyond it lie 
alternate beds of sand, and small, fordable arms of the river. 
We moved at a snail's pace, on account of the depth of the 
sand. While in the midst of one of the deepest channels, 
the water reaching to the body of the garree, one of the oxen 
twisted his head out of the yoke and darted off. There was 
great plunging and splashing on the part of the natives for a 
few minutes, but they succeeded in recovering him, and at 
length, after a passage of more than two hours, we attained 
firm earth on the opposite side. 

In spite of the lovely moonlight, I shut up the garree, and 
courted slumber. I passed a tolerable night, and at daybreak 
reached Shergotty, one hundred and thirty miles from Be- 



254 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

uares. The country, for ten miles after leaving tliat town, 
was level and gloriously rich. The wheat and barley were 
taking on their golden harvest hue, and the plantations of 
poppy sparkled in the sun like sheets of freshly-fallen snow. 
The villages were frequent, thickly settled, and had a flourish- 
ing air. The road still swarmed with Hindoo pilgrims, re- 
turning from Benares and Allahabad, almost every one carry- 
ing his two jars of Ganges water. At the stations I was as- 
sailed by clamorous beggars of all ages and sexes. The 
troops of coolies on the road were also annoying, by laying 
hold of the garree at the difficult places, running with it half 
a mile and then demanding backsheesh. They made a ridicu- 
lous feint of pushing with all their strength, although I could 
see that there was not the least strain on their muscles, and 
constantly cried out, with much energy : " Push away there — 
a great lord is inside !" 

I was now in the hilly province of Behar, where the coun- 
try becomes more undulating, and the cultivation more scanty. 
A chain of mountains which had been visible for some time in 
front, began to enclose me in their jungly depths. The road 
still continued good, the ascents being gradual, and the nuUas 
crossed by substantial bridges. The hills were covered with 
jungle to their very summits, and the country on either hand, 
as far as I could see, was uncultivated. The people had a 
wild, squalid look, and showed evidence of different blood from 
the race of the plains. I halted in the afternoon at the bun- 
galow of Dunwah for my single daily meal, and while waiting 
for it, a garree drawn entirely by coolies came up the road 
from the Calcutta side. The traveller, it seemed, had iaten- 
tions similar to mine, for his coolies brought him to the bun- 



THE TABLE-LAND OF BEHAR. 255 

galow, and I soon heard his voice in the next room, ordering 
tea and " moorghee grill " (broiled chicken). When I was 
employed on mj own meal, he came in to see who I was, and 
we were both surprised to find that we had been fellow-passen- 
gers on board the Haddington, and had parted company at 
Suez, more than two months before. 

Leaving Dunwah, I had two chokees of gradual ascent, 
among hills covered with jungle, and then reached, as I 
thought, the dividing ridge, and anticipated a corresponding 
descent ; in place whereof, a level table-land, dotted with de- 
tached mountain groups, opened before me as far as the eye 
could reach. Though thinly inhabited, the soil appeared to be 
fertile, and the air was purer than on the plains of the Ganges. 
It was a wild, romantic region, and gave me the idea of a 
country just beginning to be reclaimed from a state of nature. 
One would scarcely expect to find hundreds of miles of such 
land, coexistent with the dense population of other parts of 
India. Yet, during my travels, I saw a vast deal of waste 
and uncultivated territory. Were all its resources developed, 
the country would support at least double its present popula- 
tion. 

The sunset was beautiful among those woody ranges, and 
the full moonlight melted into it so gently that it seemed to 
arrest and retain the mellow lustre and soothing influences of 
twilight. At a chokee which I reached soon after dusk, the 
people represented to me that the road beyond was mountain- 
ous, and that two coolies would be necessary, in addition to 
the horse. "Well," said I, "let two of you come." I wait- 
ed in vain for the hills, however, for we went forward at a full 
gallop, the whole distance. Looking behind to see whether 



256 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

this inirease o speed was occasioned by the coolies, I discover- 
ed those two gentlemen comfortably seated on the rumble, with 
their legs dangling in the air, while every few minutes they 
uttered cries of such energy, that one would have supposed 
they were straining every nerve with the violence of their ef- 
forts. When we reached the station, they came up boldly and 
demanded their pay, whereupon I retorted by asking pay of 
them for their conveyance. They slunk away, quite chop-fall- 
en at my discovery of their trickery. 

At dawn the next morning, I reached a town called Topee- 
chanchee. Beyond this point the mountains gradually reced- 
ed on either hand, and at last appeared only as isolated peaks, 
rising from the plain. Near Gyra, there is a lofty single peak, 
celebrated as being the sacred hill of the Jains, who are said to 
have five temples on the summit. None of them are visible 
from the road. The natives I met in this part of Behar differ- 
ed considerably in appearance from the Hindoos of the plains, 
and probably belonged to the aboriginal tribes who are still 
found among those hills. The head is much larger and long- 
er, in proportion to the size of the body, which is short, thick 
and muscular. Several German missionaries have located 
themselves in this region, and are said to have had consider- 
able success in their labors for the conversion of these wild 
tribes. 

During the forenoon I was overtaken by a green garree, in 
which sat two ladies. As it approached, I heard a shrill voice 
urging on the driver, who lashed his horse into a gallop, and 
as the vehicle passed, the elder lady thrust her head out of the 
window, and nodded to me with an air of insolent triumph. 
She had a decidedly red face, diversified with freckles, keen 



ADVENTURES ON THE ROAD. 257 

gray eyes, a nose with a palpable snub, and a profusion of 
coarse hair, of a color, which I will charitably term auburn. 
Xt was rather humiliating to be passed in the race by a female 
0^ that style of beauty, but I did not dispute her . triumph. 
After leaving Gyra I journeyed all the afternoon over an undu- 
lating upland, covered with jungle and crossed by broken 
chains of hills, which sank into long, regular, surfy swells, as 
I approached the plains of Bengal. Thus far, beyond a few 
balks and harmless gymnastics, I had slight cause to com- 
plain of the horses furnished to me; but here my troubles 
commenced in earnest. The initiative was taken by % vicious 
animal, which bolted away from the station, dashed oS the 
road, and after hurling the garree within six inches of a pii. 
ten feet deep, was recovered, and with much persuasion in 
duced to go forward. I was comforted, however, by passing ii. 
my turn, the green garree, but the red-haired lady this timt 
turned her face steadfastly away from me, while a scowl of ill 
humor added to the upward tendency of her nose. I looked 
out and nodded triumphantly, but she only sneered with more 
freezing contempt. She overtook me again at Burdwan, the 
next morning, but after that I kept the lead, and saw no more 
of her. 

As night approached, I reached the boundary of the hills; 
an unbroken level extended to the horizon. The air was ex- 
ceedingly mild and balmy, and the moonlight so delicious 
that I sat up for hours, enjoying it. At Munglepore, which I 
reached about eight o'clock, I met a gentleman and lady, on 
their way to the North-West, in a private carriage, drawn by 
coolies. I had a pleasant half-hour's talk with them, and on 
leaving, the gentleman gave me his name as Major , of the 



258 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 



-tli, and asked me to visit him if I ever came to the Pun- 



jaub. The horses, that night, dcjirived me of all sleep. 
Sometimes the garree was planted firmly for half an hour in 
one spot, and then with a sudden impulse it shot forward with 
flying speed, swerving from one side of the road to the other, 
until a collision of some kind seemed inevitable. Once, the 
horse ran away, and was only brought up by dashing against 
the abutment of a bridge ; and at another time, being awaken- 
ed by an unusual movement of the garree, I looked out and 
found it on the steep side of a hill, with three natives holding 
on to the uppermost wheels, to prevent it from overturning. 
Notwithstanding all these perils, we succeeded in reaching 
Burdwan, seventy-two miles from Calcutta, by daybreak. 

This is a large town, and the residence of a Eajah. It is 
a beautiful place, about two miles in length, and has a large 
number of European residences. Here I was first struck with 
the difference between the vegetation of Bengal and the north- 
western provinces. Instead of those level Egyptian plains, 
with their topes of mango and tamarind, here were the gorge- 
ous growths of the West Indies, or the Mexican tierra caliente. 
In the gardens of the Europeans, the Poinscitia hung its 
long azure streamers from the trees, and the Bougainvillia 
raised its mounds of fiery purple bloom; the streets were 
shaded with lofty peepul trees, mixed with feathery groups of 
the cocoa palm ; the native huts were embowered in thickets 
of bamboo, over which towered the cotton tree, with its bare 
boughs and clusters of scarlet, lily-shaped blossoms. I arriv- 
ed at Burdwan at such an early hour, and the new garree and 
horse were gotten ready for me with so little delay, that there 
was no time to procure breakfast, before leaving the town. I 



A WRATHFUL DELAY. 259 

set out with tlie expectation of arriving at Calcutta tlie same 
evening, but had not proceeded more than five miles, when the 
horse began to plunge, struck his hind feet through the front 
of the garree, snapped the axle, and left me stranded on the 
road. 

I dispatched the driver with the horse, back to Burdwan, to 
bring another vehicle, and took my seat on the ruins to watch 
over my baggage. Two hours thus passed away; three hours; 
the sun stood high and hot in the heavens, and at last my pipe, 
to which I invariably turn for patience, failed of its effect. 
Twenty-four hours had elapsed since I had eaten, and the 
pangs of fasting were superadded to the wrath of deceived 
hopes. Another hour elapsed and it was now high noon ; I 
hailed the natives who passed, and tried to bribe them to drag 
my carriage back to the town, but they either could not un- 
derstand, or would not heed me. Still another hour, and with 
it, finally, the new conveyance came. My wrath was too great 
for words, but if looks could have affected him, the driver 
would have crumbled to ashes on the spot. Now, thought I, 
the Fates are satisfied, and I shall be allowed to pursue my 
journey in peace. But, after making a mile or so of the 
second stage, the horse, perceiving two empty wagons by the 
road-side, dashed up against them with the garree, and there 
remained. Neither blows nor entreaties would induce him to 
budge a step, and the driver finally unharnessed him and went 
back for another. This time I only waited tioo hours, and I 
neither smoked nor spoke, for I was fast approaching the apathy 
of despair. Toward sunset I reached a bungalow and achiev- 
ed a meal, after which, somewhat comforted, I continued my 
journey. 



260 INDIA, CHINA AND JAPAN. 

As the road approached the Hoogly River, the country 
became more thickly settled, and the native villages were fre- 
quent. The large mansions, gleaming white in the moonlight, 
the gardens, the avenues of superb peepul trees and groves of 
palm, spoke of the wealth and luxury of the inhabitants. 
The road was shaded with large trees, between whose trunks 
the moonshine poured in b];oad streaks, alternating with dark- 
nesses balmy with the odor of unseen flowers. I became 
tranquil and cheerful again, deeming that my trials were over. 
Vain expectation ! While passing through the very next vil- 
lage, the horse ran madly against a high garden wall on the 
right hand, and there stuck. He was unharnessed, the garree 
dragged into the middle of the road, harnessed again, and we 
started. The same thing happened as before; he gave two 
frantic leaps, and dashed us against the wall. If ever there 
was an insane animal, that was one. Six times, as I am a 
Christian, he dashed me against that wall. The driver's whip 
was soon exhausted, and I, beside myself with anger, having 
nothing else at hand, took my long cherry-wood pipe, and 
shivered it to pieces over his flanks. But he was inspired by 
the Fiend, and I was obliged to send him away and hire 
coolies to drag the vehicle as far as the Hoogly, six miles dis- 
tant, where I arrived shortly after midnight. 

I was ferried across the river, took another horse, and hav- 
ing only two stages to Calcutta, confidently lay down and went 
to sleep. I was awakened in half an hour by the stopping of 
the garree. Will it be believed that that horse, too, had come 
to a stand ? Yet such was the plain Truth — Fiction would 
never venture on such an accumulation of disasters — and once 
more the driver went back for another animal, leaving the gar- 



THE END OF " GARREE-DAWK." 261 

ree, witli myself inside, in the middle of the road. I slept, I 
knew not how long, until aroused by the sharp peal of volleys 
of musketry. The sun was up ; I rubbed my eyes and looked 
out. There I was, in the midst of Barrackpore, in front of 
the parade-ground, where some four or j&ve thousand Sepoys 
were going through their morning drill. I watched their evo- 
lutions, until the last company had defiled off the field, for the 
driver, probably surmising my fondness for military specta- 
cles, did not make his appearance for another hour. 

And now we sped down the grand avenue, which, straight 
as an arrow, and shaded by giant banyans and peepuls, leads 
from Barrackpore to Calcutta. Grradually palace-like resi- 
dences, surrounded with gardens, made their appearance on 
either side of the road. These, in turn, gave place to bamboo 
huts, with thatched roofs. Presently, a muddy moat appeared, 
and having crossed it, I felt that I was at last inside of the 
Mahratta Ditch, and that my perils were over. In half an 
hour afterwards I was quartered at Spence's Hotel ; my jour- 
ney of 2,200 miles in the interior of India was finished, and I 
adieu — for ever I trust, — to "garree-dawk." 



OH APT E E XXI. 

CALCUTTA THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN INDIA. 

Impressions of Calcutta— The Houses of the Eesidents — Public Buildings and Institu- 
tions — Colleges— Young Bengal— Museum of the Asiatic Society— The Botanic 
Garden — Calcutta at Sunset — Scene on the Esplanade — English Eule in India — Its 
Kesults — Its Disadvantages — Kelation of the Government to the Population — Ten- 
ure of Land -Taxes— The Sepoj^s — Revenue of ludia— Public Works— Moral Chan- 
ges — Social Prejudices. 

I REACHED Calcutta on the 21st of February, and embarked 
for Hong Kong, on the 28th. My stay was consequently too 
short to justify me in attempting more than a general descrip- 
tion of the city, and the impression which it made upon me. 
After the glowing accounts I had heard in the Provinces, of its 
opulent social life and architectural magnificence, I confess to 
a feeling of disappointment. It is the London, or rather the 
Paris, of India, and the country magistrate, after years of 
lonely life in the jungles, or in some remote cantonment, looks 
forward to a taste of its unaccustomed gayeties, as one of the 
bright spots in his life of exile. But it by no means deserves 
to arrogate to itself the title of the " City of Palaces," so long 
as Yenice and Florence, or even Cadiz and La Valletta, re- 
main in existence. It is not a city of palaces, but — the Euro* 
pean portion at least — a city of large houses ; and the view of 
the long line of mansions on the Chowringhee Road, extend- 



THE HOUSES OF THE RESIDENTS. 263 

ing northward to the Government Palace and the City Hall, as 
seen from the banks of the Hoogly, is certainly an architectu- 
ral diorama, which would not disgrace any capital in Europe. 
Beyond this view, which, as it is the first that strikes the eye 
of a stranger arriving by sea, explains the unbounded admira- 
tion of many travellers, there is little to satisfy one's expecta- 
tions. It is a fair outside, a frontispiece of wealth and parade, 
concealing the insignificance and poverty of the interior. Pen- 
etrate the thin crust, which hints of greater splendors behind 
it, and you are soon lost in winding, dusty avenues, lined with 
the mean and narrow dwellings of the lower classes of the na- 
tive population. 

The houses of the European residents, and of the wealthy 
native Baboos, are all built on the most spaciouS plan. The 
chambers are very large and lofty, for the purpose of coolness, 
and the open, arched verandas of the exterior throw a little 
grace around the large, blank masses of building. The mate- 
rial employed is brick and mortar only, which is plastered and 
painted white or cream-colored. On account of the damp, hot 
atmosphere of Bengal, the painting must be renewed every 
year, otherwise it becomes mildewed. The upper stories 
display a great quantity of windows, with green jalousies be- 
fore them. These mansions are mostly furnished in a rich and 
elegant style, though straw matting takes the place of carpets, 
and broad punkas (for creating an artificial current of air) 
hang from the ceiling. A large retinue of servants — varying 
from ten to thirty — move about in their long white garments 
and flat turbans, hearing your commands with folded handa 
and a profound inclination of the head. The style of living is 
s mptuouB, but rather too closely modelled after London 



264 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN, 

habits.* Perliaps there is no community in Europe which lives 
in a style of equal luxury, this being the headquarters of the 
General Government, and the seat of many of the best offices 
in its gift. 

Calcutta has little to show, in the way of architecture. 
The Government Palace is said to be a very cool and comfort- 
able residence, which, in that climate, compensates for many 
defects ; but let the reader picture to himself five immense 
cubes of masonry, touching each other precisely like five black 
squares on a chess-board, with a low dome over the central one, 
and he will have a correct picture of it. The City Hall, a 
semi-Greek structure, is to my eye the finest building in the 
place. It has a noble hall, supported by two rows of Corin- 
thian columns. The Metcalfe Hall, with a Corinthian portico, 
the new Hospital, Hare's Hindoo College, the Medical College, 
and other edifices, are proud testimonials of the public spirit 
and liberality of the citizens of Calcutta, and their architec- 
tural excellence is a matter of secondary importance. The 
new Cathedral, however, which has lately been erected at a cost 
of $150,000, reflects little credit on its projectors. It is 
Gothic, of an impure and disproportionate character, and being 
planted at one of the most prominent points on the Chowrin- 
ghee Road, must be a perpetual eyesore to such of the resi- 
dents as cherish a taste for Art. Several flourishing col- 
leges have been established, of late years, for the improvement 
of the native population. That which was founded by the late 
David Hare, Esq., ranks among the first. I received an invi- 
tation to attend a performance of Hamlet, in English, by a 
company of Hindoo students, within its walls. Another phil- 
Enthro^iG 'itizen had jtist completed a college for females, the 



265 



Buccess of which is doubted, as the Hindoo girls are betrothed 
very early, and after that ceremony, kept in strict seclusion. 
There are two mission schools, under the patronage of the 
Church of Scotland, in each of which there are more than a 
thousand pupils. Although the conversions to Christianity 
are comparatively few, the enlightened influence of Educa- 
tion, and, more especially, of European society, is making it- 
self felt among the intelligent native families, and a party 
which styles itself " Young Bengal " is rapidly increasing its 
ranks. The young men, whose faith in the absurdities of 
the religion of their fathers is destroyed, have just entered 
the stage of utter scepticism, through which they must pass in 
order to reach the true Gospel. Their scorn and irreverence 
is manifested in eating the flesh of the sacred cow, making 
themselves tipsy with the forbidden blood of the grape, and 
disregarding the awful limits and restrictions of caste. Many 
Europeans are shocked at these proceedings, but I think they 
are hopeful signs. You cannot tear the deep-rooted faith of 
ages out of the heart of a race without tearing up with it all 
capacity for Faith. But a new soil gradually forms, and the 
seed of Truth, if dropped at a happy moment, takes living 
hold therein. 

During my stay in Calcutta, I enjoyed the hospitality of 
my countryman, Mr Barstow, and his partner Mr. Ashburner, 
a Scotch gentleman. Here, as every where throughout India, 
every door is opened to the stranger, with a spontaneous and 
generous hospitality which is equalled in no other part of the 
world. Mr. Chas. Huffnagle, the American Consul, to whom 
I was indebted for many kind attentions, accompanied me to 

the Botanic Gardens, and to the Museum of the Asiatic Soci- 
12 



266 



ety. Thffe latter embraces a fine library, including many rare 
works in Oriental languages, a large zoological and mineralog- 
ical collection, and a number of Hindoo antiquities, gathered 
from different parts of India. Among tlie latter is a stone 
covered with Pali characters, from which Mr. Prinsep, the 
distinguished scholar and antiquarian, obtained his clue to the 
reading of inscriptions in that language. The Museum, how- 
ever, is evidently suffering from neglect; the statues and 
sculptures taken from ancient temples, are scattered about the 
grounds, and exposed to the action of the weather, and many of 
the specimens of natural history have been injured by the rav- 
ages of the white ants. The Botanic Garden, which is on the 
opposite bank of the Hoogly, three or four miles below the city, 
is a beautiful spot, and contains an unusually rich collection of 
the trees and plants of the Tropics. The banyan tree, with 
its 110 trunks, is considered a great lion, but I had seen speci- 
mens of more than double the size in the valley of the Ner- 
budda. Among the ornamental plants, I was most struck 
with the Amherstia nohilis, a native of Burmah, with glossy 
green foliage, and long, pendent spikes of scarlet flowers ; the 
Bougainvillia spectahilis, one broad sheet of purple bloom, 
and the Poinsettia^ whose sky-blue clusters, ten to fifteen feet 
in length, hung like streamers from the trees on which it 
leaned. 

From half an hour before, until an hour after sunset, Cal- 
cutta is to be seen in its greatest glory. Then, all who can 
procure an equipage, drive on the esplanade, an open space of 
three or four miles in length by nearly a mile in breadth, ex- 
tending along the banks of the Hoogly, from the Government 
Palace to Fort William, and still further, to the country sub- 



SCENE ON THE ESPLANADE. 267 

urb of Garden Reacli. All the splendor of Chowringhee Road 
fronts on this magnificent promenade, and I forgave the pride 
of the Calcuttanese in their city, when I joined the brilliant 
stream of life in the main drive on the banks of the river, 
watching hundreds of lordly equipages passing and repassing, 
while on the other hand, the three miles of stately residencet 
— ^palaces, if you insist upon it — shone rosy-bright in the face 
of the setting sun. The Parsee, the Hindoo and the Mussul- 
man mingled in the ranks of the pale Englishmen, and reclin- 
ed in their carriages, or drove their mettled Arabs with as 
much spirit as the best of their conquerors. Their Cashmere 
shawls, their silks and jewels, and the gay Oriental liveries of 
the syces and footmen, gave the display an air of pomp and 
magnificence which threw Hyde Park and the Champs Elysees 
into the shade. The fine band from Fort William, playing 
lively airs on the green, gave the crowning charm to the hour 
and the scene. The languor of the Indian day was forgotten, 
and the rich, sensuous life of the East flashed into sudden 
and startling vividness. I shall try to retain the impression 
of these sunset views of Calcutta, for they belong to that class 
of memories which are but enriched by time. 

Here, on the eve of my departure from India, is a fitting 
occasion to say a few words on the character and the results 
of the English rule. The Government of the East India 
Company presents an anomaly to which there is no parallel in 
history. It is a system so complicated and involved, embrac- 
ing so many heterogeneous elements, and so difficult to grasp, 
as a whole, that the ignorance manifested even in the English 
Parliament, with regard to its operations, is scarcely to be 
wondered at. From the rapidity of my progress through the 



268 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

country, and the disconnected and imperfect nature of my ob- 
servationSj I feel some reluctance in venturing upon the sub- 
ject, and the reader must be contented to receive a few general 
impressions, instead of a critical dissection of the system, which, 
indeed, would occupy too much space, even if I were compe- 
tent to undertake it. 

My previous notions of English rule in India were obtained 
chiefly from the articles on the subject in the progressive 
newspapers of England, and were, I need hardly say, unfavor- 
able. The American press is still more unsparing in its denun- 
ciations, though very few of the writers have any definite idea 
of the nature of the wrongs over which they grow so indignant. 
That there are wrongs and abuses which call for severe repre- 
hension, is undeniable ; but I have seen enough to satisfy me 
that, in spite of oppression, in some instances of the most grind- 
ing character, in spite of that spirit of selfish aggrandizement 
which first set on foot and is still prosecuting the subjugation 
of India, the country has prospered under English Government. 
So far from regretting the progress of annexation, which has 
been so rapid of late years, (and who are we^ that we should 
cast a stone against this sin ?) I shall consider it a fortunate 
thing for India, when the title of every native sovereign is ex- 
tinguished, and the power of England stretches, in unbroken 
integrity, from Cashmere to Cape Comorin. Having made 
this admission, I shall briefly refer to some of the most promi- 
nent evils and benefits of the system. 

It is the misfortune of India that it is governed by a com- 
mercial corporation, which annually drains the country of a 
large proportion of its revenues. It is true that the amount of 
the dividend on the East India stock is fixed by Parliament, 



THE EAST INDIA COMP INT. 269 

and cannot be exceeded ; but that stock, with the debts in-? 
curred, by various expensive wars, amounts to upwards of 
$225,000,000, to meet the interest on which requires an annual 
expenditure of $15,000,000. Besides this, a large amount of 
money passes out of the country in the form of salaries and pen- 
sions (the Civil Service being much better paid than any other 
service in the world), so that a constant system of depletion is 
carried on, which would have greatly impoverished the coun- 
try by this time, had not its effects been partially counteracted 
by other and compensating influences in the Government. 
The governing machinery is also very unwieldy and lumbering, 
fettered by a system of checks, which, as some of the depart- 
ments are seven thousand miles apart, renders it extremely 
difficult to introduce new measures, no matter how urgent may 
be the necessity for their adoption. Parliament in this in- 
stance adheres to the old maxim of quieta non movere, and al- 
though the charter of the East India Company comes up for 
renewal once every twenty years, few steps have been taken to 
lop off the old excrescences and simplify the action of its exec- 
utive powers. 

The relation of the Government to the laboring millions of 
India is one that has been frequently condemned. It was in- 
herited from the former rulers, but has since undergone con- 
siderable modification, and not, I am sorry to say, for the bet- 
ter. It is substantially that of landlord and tenant, the 
Government holding all the land as its own property, and leas- 
ing it to the inhabitants according to a certain form of assess- 
ment. In some instances it is leased directly to the laborers ; 
in others to zemindars, or contractors on a large scale, who 
Bub-let it to the former at an advanced rate, and practise ty^ 



270 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

rannical extortions upon them, in order to increase their own 
profits. The worst feature of this system is, that the rents 
increase in proportion to the productiveness of the land, so 
that it discourages the laborer from endeavoring to improve his 
portion. I have been informed that the amount received by 
Government averages about 75 per cent, of the value of the 
produce. The consequence is that the laborers, whether leasing 
from the zemindars or directly from the Grovernment officers, 
make but a bare subsistence from year to year. In almost any 
other country they would be kept permanently at starvation 
point, but in India their wants are so few and their habits of 
life so simple, that the amount of positive distress is compara- 
tively small. For a common laborer, such as are employed 
by Grovernment on roads and canals, four rupees a month, or 
$24 a year, is considered good wages, and there are millions 
who manage to subsist on Lalf this sum. 

In Bengal and Madras the condition of the laboring popu- 
lation is most unfavorable, on account of the peculiar land 
systems which have been adopted in those presidencies. In 
Madras, where what is called the Ryotwar system is in force, 
a general assessment of all produce and property is made every 
year, and the rents fluctuate according to this standard, within 
the limits of a maximum rate, fixed by Grovernment. But in 
order to carry out this system, the assistance of a large num- 
ber of petty native officials is required, and the abuses which 
are perpetrated under it are said to be absolutely monstrous. 
In the north-west provinces, where an assessment is only made 
every thirty years, and the occupation and cultivation of a 
tract of land constitutes a sort of claim to the renewal of the 
lease, the country is in a much more flourishing state. The 



THE SEPOYS. 271 

soil is under excellent cultivation, and the inhabitants are 
thrifty and contented, while in the neighboring kingdom of 
Oude, grinding taxes are extorted every year by the force of 
an armed soldiery, districts which twenty years ago blossomed 
as a garden, are now waste and deserted, and thousands of op- 
pressed subjects annually escape into the Company's territo- 
ries, where they find at least security of life and property. 
Despotic as the Company's government certainly is, it is a well- 
regulated despotism, and its quiet and steady sway is far pre- 
ferable to the capricious tyranny of the native rulers. 

It speaks well for the Government that its military service 
is popular among the natives. There is no conscription, the 
Sepoy regiments being raised entirely by voluntary enlistment, 
and could be increased to any extent, if desired. The miKtaiy 
force amounts to about 240,000 men — larger, one would sup- 
pose, than is actually needed, since it entails a great expense 
upon the country. The men are well fed and clothed — with the 
exception of the tight coats and stiff leather stocks in which 
they are tortured daily — and receive a liberal pay. They 
make excellent soldiers, and when placed on the flanks of a 
European battalion, march to battle as bravely as any in the 
world. For discipline, drill and soldierly appearance, some of 
the regiments would be noted anywhere. 

The land revenue is of course the main source of supply to 
the Grovernment, but there are some other taxes which are 
almost as severely felt by the population. The manufacture of 
opium is a Government monopoly, which yields a nett annual 
revenue of $15,000,000. The duty on salt is enormous, and as 
this is an article of universal consumption, is very severely felt. 
It amounts in some parts of the country to two rupees ($1) the 



272 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

maTind, while in the territories of native princes the article 
may be bought for six annas (twenty cents) the maund. The 
internal customs which formerly existed have been abolished, 
and a gradual amelioration of the burdens under which the 
native population has been weighed down, seems to be taking 
place. Though very slow to expend any money in public 
works, the Government still moves forward in this direction — ■ 
and lately by guaranteeing to the holders of stock in the 
India Railroad Companies five per cent, for twenty years, 
gave a powerful impetus to an undertaking which will in time 
change the whole aspect of the country. The Grrand Trunk 
Koad, extending from Calcutta to Delhi, a distance of 900 
miles, and now being carried on to Lahore, is one of the finest 
highways in the world. The Granges Canal, which will cost 
$10,000,000 when finished, will cover with perpetual harvests 
the great peninsular plain between the Ganges and Jumna, 
and render famine impossible in the north of India. There is 
scarcely a large city in the Company's dominions without its 
schools, its colleges and its hospitals, supported mainly by 
Government bounty. 

The moral changes which have been wrought within the 
last hundred years, or since the battle of Plassy laid the true 
foundation of the present vast commercial appanage, are even 
greater than the physical. The Civil Service, though liable to 
objection, from the favoritism practised in the appointment of 
its officers, and their promotion by seniority, without regard to 
talent or capacity, still secures to the native a more just and 
equitable administration of law than he could obtain from 
magistrates of his own race. The horrid practice of suttee^ or 
widow-burning, has been totally suppressed ; the confederation 



SOCIAL PREJUDICES. 273 

of Thugs, or Stranglers, whicli extended througliout all Cen- 
tral India, has been broken up, and the Dacoits, or robber 
bands, which are still in existence along the Granges, and in 
the hilly country at the foot of the Himalayas, are gradually 
becoming extinct. With few exceptions, order and security 
reign throughout the whole of India, and I doubt whether, on 
the whole, there has been less moral degradation and physical 
suffering at any time since the power of the Mogul Emperors 
began to decline. 

There is one feature of English society in India, however, 
which I cannot notice without feeling disgusted and indignant. 
I allude to the contemptuous manner in which the natives, 
even those of the best and most intelligent classes, are almost 
invariably spoken of and treated. Social equality, except in 
some rare instances, is utterly out of the question. The tone 
adopted towards the lower classes is one of lordly arrogance ; 
towards the rich and enlightened, one of condescension and 
patronage. I have heard the term " niggers " applied to the 
whole race by those high in office ; with the lower orders of 
the English it is the designation in general use. And this, too, 
towards those of our own Caucasian blood, where there is no 
instinct of race to excuse their unjust prejudice. Why is it 
that the virtue of Exeter Hall and Stafford House can tole- 
rate this fact without a blush, yet condemn, with pharisaic zeal, 
the social inequality of the negro and the white races in 
America ? 

My visit to India occupied only two months, and conse- 
quently some of my conclusions may be too hastily drawn. I 
have never made a more interesting, or instructive journey, or 
visited a country better worthy of thorough and conscientious 
12* 



274 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

study. Jhe historical problem which it presents is yet dis- 
tant from its solution, and it is one which no member of the 
Anglo-Saxon race can contemplate, with indifference. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

FROM CALCUTTA TO HONG KONG. 

Departure from Calcutta — Descending the Iloogly Eiver — An Accident — Kedgeree — 
The Songs of the Lascars — Saugor Island— The Sandheads — The Bay of Bengal- 
Fellow- Passengers— The Peak of Narcondan — The Andaman Islands— Approach to 
Penang— A Malay Garree — Beauty of the Island — Tropical Forest*— A Vale of Par- 
adise — The Summit — A Panorama— Nutmeg Orchards — The Extremity of Asia — 
The Malayan Archipelago — Singapore — Chinese Population — Scenery of the Island 
'—The China Sear— Arrival at Hong Kong. 

The steamship FeJcin was advertised to leave Calcutta at day- 
liglit on the 28th, so I drove down to Garden Reach, where she 
lay, the evening previous, and passed the night on board. When 
I went on deck, the sun was rising broad and red between the 
tall Australian pines on the bank ; steam and smoke were jet- 
ting out of the steamer's funnels ; crowds of natives, with a few 
Europeans, were gathered on the shore, and all the contusion of 
letting go cables, bringing baggage at the last moment, shout- 
ing from the paddle-boxes, and ringing bells on the force istle, 
showed that we were about to start. The steamer's head ,'^as . 
swung around by the tide, then running at the rate of seven cr 
eight knots an hour ; we ran upon two buoys placed near the 
shore, broke some floats from the port wheel, and then started 
for the sea. A little below our anchorage we passed the 



276 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

Bishop's flollege, on the western bank of the Hoogly. It con- 
sists of several detached buildings, in the hideous Indo-Gothic 
style introduced by the English. It is an ostentatious institu- 
tion, and of little practical use in a religious point of view. 

We swept too rapidly past the beautiful residences on both 
banks of the Hoogly — spacious white mansions standing in 
lawns shaded with the mango, the cocoa-palm and the Aus- 
tralian pine, overgrown with jungle creepers, and surrounded 
with gardens gay with the crimson Bougainvillia or the long 
white chalices of the Datura, fringing the water's edge. Two 
miles further these evidences of taste and luxury disappeared, 
and the scattered villages of the natives, with a few patches of 
corn and cane around them, kept back the primeval jungle. 
Turning the angle of Garden Reach, we lost our distant view 
of the Ochterlony Monument, the beacon of Calcutta, though 
the numbers of native and foreign craft, with steam-tugs, as- 
cending and descending the river, still showed our proximity 
to a mart of commerce. For some distance along the western 
bank the people are brick-makers, and their quaint pyramids of 
yellow clay frequently rise above the tops of the cocoa trees. 
The Bengalees live in thatched bamboo huts, directly on the 
water's edge, with a dense rank wilderness behind them. The 
cocoa-nut palm is the principal tree, though the mango also 
flourishes, and the graceful areca is sometimes seen. The cot- 
ton tree, with its showers of scarlet, lily-shaped blossoms, is a 
most brilliant object, and splendidly stars the deep green back- 
ground of the jungle. Tigers are abundant in these parts, and 
the river abounds with crocodiles, but I left India without 
having seen either of those beasts. The green parrot screamed 
from the tops of the palms, brown vultures swept lazily 



KEDGEREE SONGS OF THE LASCARS. 277 

througli the air, and a few sea-gulls skimmed the waves, but no 
more ferocious animals met my eyes. 

About thirty miles down the river, we ran into a hand- 
some three-masted schooner, carrying away her bow-sprit and 
cutting in twain one of our quarter-boats. We went more 
slowly after this, for the navigation was becoming intricate, on 
account of the breadth of the river and the frequency of sand- 
banks. The shores being a dead level, and the jungle with 
which they are covered not very lofty, they soon sank to a low 
green line on either side, and the native villages ceased. As 
far as Diamond Harbor, about sixty miles below Calcutta, 
there is a good road on the eastern bank, and telegraph stations 
at intervals. The river is here four miles broad, and gradually 
widens as we approach the sea. We dropped down to Kedge- 
ree, on the western bank, about sunset, and there halted until 
the next morning at ten, in order to cross St. James's Bar 
with the flood tide. As we were hoisting anchor, the smoke of 
a steamer was descried in the offing, and on nearer approach 
she proved to be the Tenasserim, returning from Rangoon with 
Lord Dalhousie, the Governor Greneral, and suite on board. 

While listening to the songs of the Lascars, and Chinamen, 
as they were getting up the anchor, I was struck with the resem- 
blance of one of their refrains to one of the songs of the Nile 
boatmen. The rhythm was trochaic trimeter, with a redun- 
dant syllable, precisely like the " Ud-dookkan el-lihoodeh 
fayn ? " of the Arabs. The chorus of these Lascars was : 
" Panch sepparree Bomhay-ka ' " (Five betel-nut palms of 
Bombay.) They sang in perfect accord, and the air was really 
very sweet and melodious. The rhythm was marked by a 
strong accent on the long syllables, which seems to be a gen* 



278 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

eral custom of Eastern singers. Another simple and common 
measure with the Hindoos is : " Hathee-par howdah, ghora- 
'par jeen^^ (the howdah on the elephant, the saddle on the 
horse), which corresponds to that of Motherwell's ballad : 

" Home came the saddle, 
He nevermore ! " 

We crossed the mouth of the river to Saugor Island, cpite 
sinking the western shore, and after running past its solitary 
light-house and dreary tiger jungles, stood out for the Sand- 
heads. The extreme point of Saugor Island is believed by the 
Hindoos to mark the junction of the Ganges with the sea, and 
they accordingly esteem it as one of the holiest spots in India. 
At a certain season of the year they flock thither in great 
numbers, for the purpose of bathing and offering sacrificesw 
This was my last view of India, for, although we were thread- 
ing the channels of the Sandheads and surrounded by the 
muddy waves of the Gunga, for two or three hours afterwards, 
no land was visible. About noon we discharged the pilot, and 
having fairly entered on the broad Bay of Bengal, headed for 
Penan g. 

The voyage across the bay was remarkably pleasant. 
There was a profound calm in the air and on the water, and 
our progress through it created but a faint semblance of a 
breeze. The mercury ranged from 80° to 85'^^, the tempera- 
ture at which indolence becomes a luxury. I had been so 
bruised, jolted, shaken and excited by my journey through 
India, that the sweetness of the air, the repose of the sea, and 
the quiet movement of our vessel, were exceedingly grateful 
and refreshing. There were only six other passengers, and 



THE ANDAMAN ISLANDS. 279 

each of us possessed an entire state-room — a great advantage 
in a voyage in the tropical seas. The captain, a red-haired 
giant in appearance, was one of the frankest, heartiest and 
most genial of commanders, and the other officers were quiet 
and gentlemanly in their manners. Among the passengers 
were Sir Lawrence Peel, Chief Justice of Bengal, and Mr. 
Dorin, Secretary of the Board of Directors of the East India 
Company. 

After sailing two or three days across the Bay, towards 
the Burmese coast, we passed one night through the Cocos 
Islands, off the northern point of the Great Andaman. The 
next day we saw the island of Narcondan — a single volcanic 
peak, which rises from the water to the height of 2,500 feet. 
Its summit was hidden in clouds, and its sides completely 
covered with the richest vegetation. It is singular that so lit- 
tle should be known of the Andaman Islands, which lie high 
up the Bay of Bengal, almost on the route between Calcutta 
and Burmah. The larger island is about a hundred miles in 
length, and has a splendid harbor at its northern extremity. 
The East India Company at one time attempted to make a 
settlement there, but failed on account of sickness among the 
colonists. The natives of the islands are believed to be simi- 
lar to the Papuans, though some consider them a branch of 
the African race. It is said that they are cannibals, but very 
little is known of their habits and modes of life. 

Approaching the promontory of Malacca, we caught a dis- 
tant view of the island of Salanga, and then stood in nearer 
the eastern shore. On the morning of the 6th of March, we 
made the island of Penang, which is separated from the penin- 
sula >y a strait less than a mile in width. The town of Pe- 



280 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

nang lies^n the inner side, where the narrowness of the strait 
forms a secure harbor for vessels. The eastern half of the 
island is nearly level, rising to the west into a group of lofty 
mountains, clothed to the summits with forests. A strip of silver 
beach along the shore, divided the pale emerald of the sea — a 
hue which betrays a floor of coral — from the darker tint of the 
forests of cocoa palm, which rose behind. Here and there a 
picturesque Malay village crouched in the shade, and num- 
bers of small fishing craft dotted the surface of the water. A 
Chinese junk, with sails of matting, divided into a score of 
reefs, and with a great black eye on each side of her square 
bows, moved slowly past us on her way to Singapore. The 
morning wind, blowing off the land, fanned us with spicy odors, 
and hinted of the groves of nutmeg and clove-trees, for which 
Penang is celebrated. 

When the steamer came to anchor, and we were informed 
that seven hours was the limit of our stay, I determined to 
visit the signal-station on the summit of the highest peak of 
the island, about eight miles distant, and set off at once, in 
company with one of the officers. We landed at a little wooden 
jetty, where a number of light garrees, with a pony harnessed 
to each, were collected, in anticipation of employment. One 
of the passengers, who was stationed at Penang, engaged two 
saddle-ponies for us, and dispatched them in advance, to await 
us at the foot of the mountain, while we proceeded thither in a 
garree. The road was admirable, and the Malay groom, run- 
ning at the pony's head, propelled him forwards even too fast 
for our liking. The purity of the air, t^ e cloudless beauty of 
the day, and the glorious graves of bain and bloom — of deep 
green shades, and glossy lustres, and gorgeous coloring — 



PENANG TROPICAL FORESTS. 281 

througla whicli we drove, have never been surpassed, in all my 
experience of the tropics. I thought then, and I think so 
^till, that Penang is the most beautiful island in the world. 
The dwellings of the English residents are large, airy bunga- 
lows, embowered in gardens, and surrounded by groves of 
cocoa and areca palm, the nutmeg and bread-fruit trees. The 
native town, inhabited by Chinese and Malays, is small, and 
lies close upon the water, but for miles around it extends a suc- 
cession of beautiful residences and rich plantations, reaching to 
the foot of the hills. The Chinese houses, scattered along the 
road, with their great red hieroglyphics, and the queer, solemn- 
ly-stupid yellow faces of their inmates, catch the eye of the 
traveller from the west, and tell him that he has at last reached 
the borders of the Far East. 

After a drive of four miles, we entered a little dell, where 
a stream of water, stealing through the woods, fell over the 
rocks in a miniature cascade. Several lithe Malay youths 
were bathing in the shallow pool at its foot, and their glowing 
"brown bodies glistened in the sun. Here we mounted our 
ponies, and commenced the ascent. The path wound back- 
wards and forwards through dense thickets, between banks 
covered with gigantic fern, till it attained a ridgy spur of the 
mountain, which it followed upward to the central heights. 
We soon entered the forests, which gradually became so dense 
and dark as to shut out every ray of the sun. Trees of thick, 
glossy foliage, mingled their tops a hundred feet above our 
heads, and in their shade arose a luxuriant undergrowth. 
Ferns, whose fronds were frequently from ten to fifteen feet in 
length, bent their arching plumes above our heads ; strange 
plants, of new and graceful form, clustered on either hand, and 



282 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

birds of bright plumage darted in and out of the foliage. 
There was one, hidden in thickest shades, whose clear, pro- 
longed, bell-like note, rang continually through the forest — a 
wild, wizard call, which overflowed all the air, and was taken 
up in one spot as soon as it ceased in another. 

We had advanced in this way about two miles, when an 
opening in the trees disclosed a view to the south, into the 
heart of a valley of more than Arcadian loveliness. It might 
have been three miles in length by less than a mile in breadth, 
and the orchards of palm, orange and spice- trees which covered 
its lap, almost concealed the dwellings of the planters. It lay 
between hills of billowy green, which, uniting at the farther 
end, formed a gorge or gateway of forests, through which shone 
the dark-blue sphere of the sea. It was a landscape from the 
paradise of dreams, basking in the light of its own serene and 
perfect beauty. As I looked down on it from that window of 
the region of shade, I could have believed that I stood on the 
Delectable Mountains, and that the valleys of the Land of 
Beulah were at my feet. 

Again we plunged into the depth of the forest, and after 
two miles more of climbing, which moistened every hair in the 
coats of our sturdy little ponies, reached the flag-staff, 2,500 
feet above the sea. Here there is a summer residence of 
the Governor, and half a dozen private bungalows. The 
pure air of the heights, with the refreshing temperature, 
which stands at from 70° to 75° during the whole year, make 
this a most delightful place of resort. I climbed to the cross- 
trees of the flag-staff in order to get an uninterrupted view of 
the wide summer panorama. The lowland of Penang, with its 
orchards and gardens, lay at my feet ; across the strait stretched 



A PANORAMA. 283 

many a league of forest, divided here and there by the gleam- 
ing windings of rivers, and far back in the vapory distance 
arose the mountain spine of the Peninsula of Malacca. To 
the south and west, over scattered island-cones of verdure, 
curved a great hemisphere of sea, behind which, hidden by the 
warm noonday haze, were the mountains of Sumatra. That 
part of the peninsula lying opposite to Penang has been ac- 
quired by the East India Company, and erected into a pro- 
vince, with the title of Wellesley ; further south, Malacca and 
Singapore are English dependencies ; the gap between Arracan 
and Tenasserim has been filled up by the recent annexation of 
Pegu, and now, of two thousand miles of coast line between 
Calcutta and Singapore, there are not more than two hundred, 
to which the English title is still wanting. The Anglo-Indian 
Empire stretches from Beloochistan to the China Sea. They 
now talk of the natural boundaries of Burmah as obviatino^ 
the need of further annexation to the Eastward ; but when did 
their lust of aggrandizement ever heed any natural boundary 
except the sea ? 

On our return to the ship we visited a nutmeg plantation. 
The trees, which are from twenty to thirty feet in height, are 
planted in rows, at intervals of about twenty feet. The leaf 
is dark green and glossy, resembling that of the laurel, and the 
fruit, at a little distance, might be taken for a small russet- 
colored apple. When ripe the thick husk splits in the centre, 
showing a scarlet net-work of mace, enveloping an inner nut, 
black as ebony, the kernel of which is the nutmeg of commerce. 

The clove-tree, not then in its bearing season, has some re- 
semblance to the nutmeg, but the leaf is smaller, and the foliage 
more loose and spreading. A? we drove through the orchard, 



284 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

the w^m air of noon was heavy with spice. The rich odora 
exhaled from the trees penetrated the frame with a sensation 
of languid and voluptuous repose. Perfume became an appe- 
tite, and the senses were drugged with an overpowering feeling 
of luxury. Had I continued to indulge in it, I should ere 
long have realized the Sybarite's complaint of his crumpled 
rose-leaf. 

In the Strait of Malacca, the heat was rather oppressive, the 
thermometer standing at 88° in the coolest part of the ship. 
"We ran down within sight of the peninsula, and on the after- 
noon after leaving Penang, had a distant view of the town of 
Malacca. The next morning I went on deck, just in time to 
see the southern extremity of the Continent of Asia. The Pe- 
ninsula of Malacca tapered away to a slender point, complete- 
ly overgrown with palm and mangrove trees, which rose in 
heavy masses from the water's edge. At the end, a single 
cocoa-palm stood a little in advance of its fellows, leaning out- 
ward, as if looking intently across the Southern Sea. The 
water was smooth and glassy, and belts of a paler green be- 
trayed the hidden banks of coral. Island after island arose in 
the distance, until we were inclosed in an archipelago of never- 
fading verdure. They were tenanted entirely by the Malay 
races; some were hilly and irregular in appearance, while 
other rose like green cones from the tranquil sea. The Island 
of Singapore, which we were approaching, was comparatively 
low, but not without a picturesque beauty in the irregularity of 
its shores. The strait through which we sailed resembled an 
inland lake rather than a part of the ocean, for the islands were 
so crowded together in the distance as quite to intercept the 
sea-horizon. Presently we entered what seemed a river — the 



SINGAPORE CHINESE POPULATION. 285 

narrow strait Letween Singapore and a small adjacent island, 
and halted alongside a large wooden pier, in what is called the 
New Harbor. 

The town of Singapore is three miles distant, but as the 
steamer remained twenty-four hours to coal, we embarked in 
garrees drawn by Malay ponies, and were carried straightway 
to the " London Hotel," where we remained until next day. 
The town is purely commercial, and has grown up principally 
within the last ten or fifteen years. The population is esti- 
mated at 40,000 or 50,000, the greater part of whom are 
Chinese. There are several of their pagodas in the place, and 
three large burying-grounds, densely populated, in the vicinity. 
This was my first sight of a large Chinese community, and the 
impression it left was not agreeable. Their dull faces, without 
expression, unless a coarse glimmering of sensuality may be 
called such, and their half-naked, unsymmetrical bodies, more 
like figures of yellow clay than warm flesh and blood, filled me 
with an unconquerable aversion. The scowling Malay, with 
his dark, fiery eye, and spare but sinewy form, was ennobled 
by the comparison, and I turned to look upon him with a great 
sense of relief. 

The Island of Singapore is hilly and undulating, although 
no part of it rises more than 500 feet above the sea. On the 
eastern side of the town is the English suburb, which contains 
a number of pleasant residences. The Governor's mansion is 
delightfully situated on a hill above, commanding a fine view 
of the harbor, and the large island of Bintang in the distance. 
The hills around it are covered with turf as fresh and green as 
that of England. The temperature of the island, which lies in 
1° 18^ N., is healthy and agreeable, and scarcely varies 



286 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

throu^out the whole year. The vegetation is kept constant- 
ly fresh and luxuriant by frequent showers. The interior of 
the island is covered with plantations of pepper and nutmeg. 
The depredations committed by tigers are said to be frightful, 
since in spite of a government bounty for their destruction, 
more than three hundred persons are annually devoured by 
them. 

We left Singapore on the morning of the 9th, and after 
passing the island of Bintang, entered the China Sea. Not- 
withstanding it was the season of the north-east monsoon, we 
were favored with calm weather and clear skies. During the 
first two days we passed Pulo Aor, and the barren groups of 
the Anambas and Natunas, after which nothing occurred to 
break the monotony of the voyage, until the morning of the 
16th, when in the midst of a thick and rainy gale from the 
north, which came up suddenly during the night, we made 
the rocks called the Asses' Ears, off the Ladrone Islands, at 
the mouth of the Gulf of Canton. "We got shelter from the 
heavy. swell under the lee of the Lemma Island, and as the 
clouds broke away a little, saw before us the barren hills of 
Hong Kong. In two hours more we were at anchor in the 
harbor. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

VOYAGE UP THE C O A. S T OF CHINA. 

Trip to Macao — Attached to the XT. S. Embassy— On Board the Steam-frigate Susque- 
hanna — Departure from Macao — The Coast of China — The Shipwrecked Japanese — 
Their Address to the Commissioner — The Eastern Sea — ^The Archipelago of Chusan 
— The Mouth of the Yang-tse-Kiang— The Steamer Aground — Eumors of the Reb- 
els — Arrival at Woosung— Entering the "Woosung River— Chinese Junks — Appear- 
ance of the Country— Approach to Shanghai— Ajrival. 

On arriving at Hong Kong, one of my fellow-passengers en- 
tered my name afc the Club House, a part of whicli was fitted 
up as a hotel. The weather was cold, raw and cloudy, and I 
spent the greater part of my time in-doors, reading the late files 
of European journals. The U. S. steam-frigate Susquehanna 
was lying in the harbor, ready to sail for Macao, and as I de- 
sired to visit Canton, I accepted Capt. Buchanan's invitation 
to cross in her to the former place, whence I could take the 
Canton steamer. She left Hong Kong on the morning of the 
20th, and after a pleasant run of four hours anchored in Macao 
Roads. I went ashore, expecting to proceed to Canton on the 
morrow: but no one knows what a day may bring forth. 
Upon calling on the U. S. Commissioner, the Hon. Humphrey 



288 INDIA, CHINA, A2fD JAPAN. 

Marsli£fil, to whom I had letters, he generously offered to attach 
me to the Embassy, that I might be able to accompany him to 
the seat of war in the North. So rare an opportunity of see- 
ing the most interesting portion of China during the present 
remarkable crisis in the history of the Empire was not to be 
neglected ; and on the following morning I again found myself 
on board the Susquehanna, listening to the thunders of the sa- 
lute which welcomed the Commissioner. It was worth all my 
long wanderings in foreign lands and among strange races, to 
experience the pride and satisfaction of walking the deck of a 
national vessel, and hearing again the stirring music of our na- 
tional airs. One must drink deep of absence and exile to learn 
the tenderness of that regard for his native land, which at 
home lies latent and unsuspected at the bottom of his nature. 
I want no man for a friend, whose heart will not beat more 
warmly at the sight of his country's banner floating on a dis- 
tant sea. 

The handsome stern-cabin of the Susquehanna was appro- 
priated to the use of the Commissioner, and his suite, consisting 
of Dr. Peter Parker, Secretary of Legation, Mr. 0. H. Perry, 
Private Secretary, and myself. We found in Capt. Buchanan, 
the Commander, all that his reputation as a gentleman and a 
brave and gallant officer, led us to anticipate ; while the officers 
under his command justified the high opinion I had formed of 
our naval corps, from the few whom it had previously been my 
good fortune to meet. Under such auspices, our voyage up 
the coast of China was one of the most agreeable I ever 
made. 

We left Macao, about nine o'clock on the morning of the 
21st, and stood outward to sea, past the Lemma Island. The 



THE COAST OF CHINA. 289 

day was warm and calm, and the barren Chinese coast was 
unohscured by cloud or vapor. It is a bold, rugged shore, in* 
dented with small bays and estuaries, and bounded by a fringe 
of lofty island-rocks, which are for the most part uninhabitable. 
In its general features, it resembles the coast of California, but 
is in reality more sterile, though hardly more so in appear- 
ance. Towards evening we saw the promontory called Breaker 
Point in the distance, and during the night passed within half 
a mile of the Lamock Islands. The next morning was dull 
and overcast. We were already within the Straits of Fu-kien, 
or the Forriaosa Channel, as it is now called, and had a strong 
head- wind. During the day we had occasional glimpses of the 
islands and promontories of the coast, on our left, but too dark 
and indistinct to be satisfactory. About noon, we passed the 
headland of Quemoy, north of the Bay of Amoy, which is one 
of the five ports opened to foreigners by the English war. Its 
commerce, however, is next to nothing, nearly all the foreign 
trade being concentrated at Canton and Shanghai. 

On Monday afternoon the thirteen shipwrecked Japanese 
sailors, who, having been picked up at sea and taken into San 
Francisco, were sent to China by the order of* our Govern- 
ment, and placed on board the Susquehanna, were summoned 
in a body upon the quarter-deck to pay their respects to the 
" big mandarin," as they termed Col. Marshall. They made a 
very profound inclination of the head, removing their caps at 
the same time. Dr. Parker addressed them in Chinese, which 
they did not understand when spoken; but as the Chinese 
characters are known to the Japanese (the same character sig- 
nifying the same word in both languages), he was enabled to 
communicate with them. They appeared cheerful and in good 
13 



290 



INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN, 



condition. They were nearly all dressed in sailor costume, 
with clothes which the officers and men had given them. It 
was curious to note the variety of feature, form and expression 
among these men, all of whom belonged to the same class. 
There was one with an unusually broad face and dark com- 
plexion, who corresponded to Golownin's description of tho 
Kurile inhabitants of the northern portion of the Empire. 
They wore their hair short upon the crown and front of the 
head, but hanging loose and long at the back and sides, which 
Dr. Parker declared to have been the former Chinese custom, 
shaven heads and long tails having been introduced by the 
Mantchow Dynasty. The features of these Japanese were 
much better than those of the corresponding class of Chinese. 
The day following their presentation a note written in Chinese 
characters was addressed by them to Col. Marshall. It was 
very fragmentary and laconic, owing^ no doubt, to the small 
stock of characters in the writer's possession. It was addressed 
on the envelope : " To the American King — from thirteen 
Japanese," and the contents were as follows : " We, thirteen 
Japanese men, have fathers, mothers, young brothers, old 
brothers, wives, children. You go to Shanghai : go to Japan!" 
On Wednesday we continued to advance against a strong 
head-wind, catching but few and cloudy glimpses of the coast. 
During the day we passed the mouth of the estuary of Foo- 
chow-foo, another of the five ports. Before night, we had 
passed through the Formosa Channel, and were in the Tong-hai, 
or Eastern Sea, which is bounded by China, Corea, the Japanese 
Island of Kiusiu, and the Lew-Chew Archipelago. The next 
morning we were off the province of Che-Kiang. Soon after 
sunrise we made a graall island called the Straw-Stack, and still 



THE ARCHIPELAGO OF CHUSAN. 291 

furtlier, a headland called Mushroom Peak, from its shape, the 
sides being perpendicular, and the summit slightly projecting 
over them. At the other extremity of the same promontory, 
there was a tall isolated rock resembling a pagoda. The af- 
ternoon was raw and foggy, and as there was a large number of 
fishing junks off the coast, our steam-whistle was blown repeat- 
edly, as a signal for them to get out of the way. 

On Friday there was a dense fog, with frequent showers of 
rain, and we saw no land until evening, when we made the 
rocks called the Brothers, at the eastern end of the Archipelago 
of Chusan. We had had no observation for a day or two, but 
when the fog lifted and showed the rocks, we were not a mile 
from our supposed position. The night set in dark and stormy, 
and as the tides and currents, which prevail in this part of the 
Archipelago, are very uncertain, we felt our way in the fog 
into a strait between the islands of Chusan and Chinsan, and 
came to anchor under the lee of the latter. It blew violently 
during the night, but the gale had the effect of clearing away 
the fog, so that we were able to get under way again at daylight. 

We rounded the eastern point of Chinsan, and running in a 
north-west course, soon made the two groups called the Rug- 
ged Islands and Parker's Islands. The water became yellow 
and muddy, showing that we were already within the influence 
of the great Yang-tse-Kiang Kiver, and when scarcely abreast 
the southern entrance, it was as turbid as the Mississippi at 
New Orleans. The volume of water brought down by the river 
must be enormous ; the southern mouth, which comprises about 
two thirds, or less, of the main stream, is thirty miles in 
breadth. Parker's Island was green and beautiful, and ap- 
peared to be cultivated. Most of the other islands were lofty 



292 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

rugged, tis their name denotes, and hopelessly barren. The 
smaller ones were mere rocks, cleft and divided by deep 
chasms, like those on the western coast of Scotland. The wind 
was keen, cold, and strong from the north, and the thermome- 
ter down to 60'^. The sky was a cool, pale blue, veiled with 
haze, but the sun shone cheerily at intervals. As we ap- 
proached our destination, the Japanese desired another inter- 
view with the Commissioner. It was intimated that they 
wished to land at Shanghai, make their way to Chapoo, the 
Chinese port of communication with Nagasaki, and embark in 
a junk for the latter place. Chapoo is south of Shanghai, on 
the Bay of Hang-Chow, and about ninety miles distant. 

At noon we reached Grutzlaff Island, at the mouth of the 
Yang-tse-Kiang (Son of the Sea), and commenced the difficult 
navigation of the river. The island is a round, rocky hillock, 
rising 210 feet from the water. From its prominence, and 
position at the mouth of the river, it is a valuable landmark 
for vessels. The Yang-tse-Kiang is here about twenty miles 
broad, flowing between the mainland of China, and the large 
island of Tsung-Ming. Both shores are a dead level, dyked 
to prevent inundation, like the banks of the lower Mississippi, 
and not to be seen from the narrow channel in the middle of 
the river, which is lined on both sides by extensive sand-banks. 
We had a strong wind and tide against us, and did not lose 
sight of Gutzlaff Island until near four o'clock. The water 
became more dense and yellow as we proceeded, and the pad- 
dles of the steamer stirred up large quantities of the soft mud 
of the bottom. The depth of the stream varied from four to 
five fathoms. 

At six o'clock, as the crew was beaten to quarters, it was 



THE FRIGATE AGROUND. 293 

noticed that tlie engines moved sliiggislily, and soon afterwards 
the ship refused to obey her helm. She was immediately 
stopped, and a careful sounding showed only two and three 
quarter fathoms. The previous sounding had been disturbed 
by the wake of the wheel, and the sinking of the lead into the 
loose mud, so that we had run about half a mile upon the 
South Shoal before being aware of it. The engines were 
backed, but the strong northern gale and ebb tide kept us sta- 
tionary for about an hour, after which the ship began to move 
by fits and starts. The guns were run forward to lighten her 
stern, and the tide setting in her favor, she worked herself off 
by nine o'clock, and came to anchor in deep water. 

We started again the next morning, with the flood tide. 
The day was crystal-clear, and a bracing wind blew from the 
north-east. In an hour or two we were hailed by an American 
pilot, who had been taking a French vessel out of the river. 
He startled us with the news that the rebels had invested 
Nanking with an army of 200,000 men, captured all the 
Chinese war-junks in the Yang-tse-Kiang, and cut off supplies 
from the beleaguered troops — with many other particulars, 
which, like all rumors afloat at that time, were greatly exagge- 
rated. In another hour the mainland of China was visible on 
our left — a low shore, covered with trees, and dotted with the 
houses of the natives. Numbers of junks were anchored along 
the beach, and the wreck of a European vessel told of the 
dangers of the navigation. The island of Tsung-Ming was 
barely visible to the east. We reached the mouth of the 
Woosung River about noon, and cast anchor a mile from the 
shore, to wait for a tide to carry us over the bar. On making 
signals, a junk came out for the mails, with which she started 



294 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

at ouce for Shanghai. The mouth of the river was crowded 
with vessels, the greater part of which were native junks. 
The stream is about half a mile in breadth, and is protected by 
two batteries, the northern one having 126 guns. The shore is 
well wooded, and the trees, with their thin texture and the 
greenish-gray hue of their budding, leaves, showed that we had 
again reached a climate where spring is known. 

Mr. P. S. Forbes, U. S. Consul at Canton, and Mr. Cun- 
ningham, Vice-Consul at Shanghai, who had ridden down to 
Woosung in expectation of the Susquehanna's arrival, came on 
board shortly after we dropped anchor. At 4 P. M., the tide 
being again flood, we stood into the river through the fleet of 
junk sat its mouth. It was a delicate piece of manoeuvring, 
but the vessel minded her helm admirably, and threaded the 
mazes of the crowded anchorage without touching one of the 
craft. The tide carried us safely over the bar, and we kept on 
up the river at nearly our full speed. The stream was covered 
with junks lying at anchor or sailing up and down. Our 
steam-whistle warned them to clear the track, and they obeyed 
with alacrity, the crews gathering upon the high poops to sur- 
vey us as we passed. Most of the junks had inscriptions 
across the stern and along the sides of the hull. Some, which 
Dr. Parker read, denoted that the vessel was in Government 
service : others had fantastic names, such as " The Favorable 
Wind," " Happiness," &c. All the larger ones had four masts, 
each mast carrying a single oblong sail, made of very closely 
woven matting, crossed with horizontal slips of bamboo, so 
that it could be reefed to any extent required. The people had 
a lighter complexion and more regular features than the 



SHORES OF THE WOOSUNG RIVER. 295 

Datives of the southern provinces, and in lieu of. the umbrella 
hat wore the round black cap of the Tartars. 

The country on both sides of the river is a dead level of 
rich alluvial soil, devoted principally to the culture of rice and 
wheat. The cultivation was as thorough and patient as any I 
had seen, every square foot being turned to some useful ac- 
count. Even the sides of the dykes erected to check inunda- 
tions were covered with vegetables. These boundless levels are 
thickly studded with villages and detached houses, all of which 
are surrounded with fruit-trees. I noticed also occasionally 
groves of willow and bamboo. The country, far and wide, is 
dotted with little mounds of earth — the graves of former 
generations. They are scattered over the fields and gardens 
in a most remarkable manner, to the great detriment of the 
cultivators. In some places the coffins of the poor, who cannot 
afford to purchase a resting-place, are simply deposited upon 
the ground, and covered with canvas. The dwellings, but for 
their peaked roofs, bore some resemblance to the cottages of 
the Irish peasantry. They were mostly of wood, plastered and 
whitewashed, and had an appearance of tolerable comfort. 
The people, who came out to stare in wonder at the great 
steamer as she passed, were dressed uniformly in black or 
dark blue. Numerous creeks and canals extended from the 
river into the plains, but I did not notice a single highway. 
The landscape was rich, picturesque and animated, and fully 
corresponded with what I had heard of the dense population 
and careful agriculture of China. I was struck with the gene- 
ral resemblance between the Woosung and the lower Missis- 
sippi, and the same thing was noticed by others on board. 

Before sunset, we discovered in the distance the factories 



296 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

and flaggtaffs of Shanghai. The town had a more imposing 
appearance than I was prepared to find. The river makes a 
sharp bend to the south-west at this point, and over the tops of 
the trees on the southern bank, we could see a forest of masts, 
a mile in length, belonging to the native junks. The number 
of foreign vessels anchored before the factories did not exceed 
twenty. Rounding the point, we swept between the shipping, past 
the stately row of tall European residences, and a neat church 
(Gothic), to the reach in front of the American Consulate, one 
of the largest and handsomest buildings on the river. The 
English war-steamers Hermes and Salamander, and the brig 
Lily, lay anchored there, and the French war-steamer Cassini, 
a little further up the stream. Beyond them commenced the 
wilderness of junks, packed side by side in one unbroken mass. 
As the anchor dropped our band struck up " Hail Columbia," 
followed by the English and French national airs. 

Mr. Cunningham invited the Commissioner and his suite to 
take rooms at the Consulate, where that splendid hospitality 
which distinguishes the foreign communities in China is prac- 
tised to its fullest extent. We found various and contradictory 
rumors afloat with regard to the Chinese rebels, but it was gen- 
erally believed that Nanking had fallen into their hands. The 
merchants were in hourly expectation of hearing that the great 
city of Soo-Chow, the capital of the silk-growing district, and 
only seventy miles from Shanghai, had been invested. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

AN ATTEMPT TO VISIT NANKING. 

The Commissioner decides to visit Nanking — Preparations for the Voyage — Departure 
of four Japanese — Tlie Susquehanna leaves — Woosung — Bush Island and Tsung- 
Ming— We strike the Blonde Shoal— The Chinese Pilots— Escape of a Boat— OfiF the 
Shoal — Mr. Bennett's night cruise after the Boats — Unfavorable Eeports— The Re- 
turn — End of the Expedition— Successful Trip of the Susquehanna in the Summer 
of 1854, 

Three days after our arrival, the Commissioner decided to 
start for Nanking. The near approach of the rebel forces to 
the foreign settlement of Shanghai, the uncertainty with regard 
to their views towards foreigners, and the utter impossibility of 
obtaining reliable accounts from the seat of war through the 
Chinese authorities, led him to this step. The visit was pro- 
jected with the sole view of obtaining information, that he 
might best know how to guard the interests of American citi- 
zens in China. Like the representatives of England and 
France in Shanghai, he determined on preserving the strictest 
neutrality during the civil war then raging in the North. But 
if, as all accounts concurred in representing, Nanking had 
already fallen, it was a matter of importance that the rebel 
leaders should be assured of this neutrality, and of the 
13* 



298 INDIA, CHINA, 

necessity^ on their part, of respecting the rights of foreign 
citizens. The adoption of this course was rendered still more 
imperative by the falsehoods which the Chinese authorities, 
and especially the Taou-tai (Governor) of Shanghai had pub- 
lished and circulated concerning the enlistment of foreign aid. 

Two hundred tons of coal were taken on board the Susque- 
hanna, and application was made to the Taou-tai for native 
pilots who knew the river. These he readily furnished, hoping 
perhaps that our appearance off Nanking would be interpreted 
to the advantage of the Imperialists. Hundreds of Chinese 
continued to visit the Susquehanna up to the hour of her de- 
parture. Several of the American residents made \application 
to accompanj" us on the voyage, but, with the exception of Mr. 
Forbes, no other passenger was taken on board. Previous to 
sailing, four of the Japanese left our ship. One of their 
countrymen — one of those who were turned back from Japan 
in the Morrison, in 1837 — was then residing in Shanghai, 
and he promised to assist them. Neither Capt. Buchanan 
nor the Commissioner had any authority to keep them on 
board. They desired their countryman, Otokitchi, to say that 
they thanked the ofl6.cers and men of the ship from their hearts, 
and would never forget their kindness toward them. Two of 
them wept like children when they left. 

We started at floodtide, on the afternoon of the 1st of 
April. The hund^ or quay, of Shanghai was crowded with 
spectators of our departure. We were two hours and a half 
reaching Woosung. The rich plains on either hand were 
greener and more beautiful than they appeared on the passage 
up. The willow trees planted along the numerous little canala 
intersecting the country were rapidly bursting into leaf. In 



BUSH ISLAND AND TSDNG-MINQ. 299 

spite of these tokens of spring, a keen, benumbing wind blew 
from the north-east, and the cabin was not comfortable without 
fire. There Is perhaps no other part of the world where spring 
is so tardy. "We crossed the bar without difficulty, but after- 
wards had to thread a fleet of junks, filling up a r6ach of more 
than half a mile. This feat was admirably managed, without 
running afoul of any of the craft, though the winding channels 
between them were scarcely broader than our beam. The 
Susquehanna obeyed her helm as readily as a ferry-boat. We 
anchored for the night in the main channel of the Yang-tse- 
Kiang, a mile from shore. 

At daybreak, the ten Chinese boats which had been 
engaged for the purpose of going ahead to feel the channel, 
started in advance. We hove anchor and left at seven o'clock. 
The four Chinese pilots were on deck, seemingly confident of 
their ability to carry us through. Just above Woosung, we 
passed Bush Island ; the large island of Tsung-Ming, separat- 
ing the northern and southern mouths of the Yang-tse-Kiang, 
was visible beyond it in the distance. Both of these islands 
have been formed from the alluvial deposits of the river, and 
are yearly increasing in size. Capt. Potter (an American 
pilot, who accompanied us) informed me that ten years ago 
there was but one bush on the smaller island (whence its 
name), and not an inhabitant. At present it is covered with 
trees and thickly studded with cottages. Tsung-Ming, a cen- 
tury ago, was a sand-bar ; at present it supports a population 
of six hundred thousand. The immense deposits brought 
down by the Yang-tse-Kiang, the Hoang-Ho, and other rivers, 
must in the course of time entirely fill up the mouth of the 
Zellow Sea. 



300 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

Our mesquito fleet was still visible, running rapidly ahead 
with the monsoon filling their square sails, and I was looking 
through a telescope at the clusters of Chinese who were 
watching us from the shore, when the ship suddenly struck 
upon a shoal. She was only going at half-speed, and the 
engine was stopped soon enough to prevent her jamming very 
hard upon the sand. Still, there she stuck, and as the ebb-tide 
had just commenced, every effort was made to get her off be- 
fore the water fell. There were fourteen feet at the bows, and 
three and one fourth fathoms at the stern : the bottom hard 
sand. The wheels were backed and a hawser sent out over 
the stern, to warp her off, but without avail. The place where 
we struck proved to be the Blonde Shoal, twelve or fifteen miles 
from Woosung. The accident was entirely owing to the care- 
lessness or treachery of the principal Chinese pilot. We had 
boats enough to have sounded out for us all the shoals as far 
as Harvey's Point, but he insisted on sending them ahead, 
saying that he was perfectly familiar with the channel, and did 
not require their services for a hundred li (thirty miles) fur- 
ther. He put on an offensive, stately air, and carried his head 
high until chastised by Mr. Cunningham's comprador, who 
accompanied us as interpreter and commissary. The latter, on 
receiving an impertinent reply to a question which he had 
asked by command of Capt. Buchanan, immediately struck the 
pilot in the face, and brought him to his knees in supplication. 

When it was found we could not get off, Capt. Buchanan 
determined to send the Chinese bum-boat, which accompanied 
us, ahead to the other boats, with one of the pilots. But the 
men, instead of keeping up the river, immediately made all 
speed for the shore. One of the brass field-pieces was hauled 



GETTING OFF THE SHOAL. 301 

to the stern, brought to bear on her, and a few shots fired 
across her bows, in order to bring her back, but she continued 
to make away, although the balls ploughed up the sea just be- 
yond her. It happened that the pilot was not on board, as 
was supposed, but had remained with us, though in great fear 
for his life. Mr. Bennett, Master of the Susquehanna, was 
then sent off for the pilots, in one of the ship's cutters. At 
ebb-tide we had but eight feet water under our bows and 
seventeen under the stern. 

At midnight on Saturday night it began to blow very 
violently from the north, so that about five o'clock, when the 
tide had risen a few feet, the vessel seemed to be slowly work- 
ing herself loose. The foresail was bent on, and she immedi- 
ately gave evidence of feeling it. A few backward strokes of 
the wheels urged her clear of the shoal, and she hung buoy- 
antly in deep water. But in the distance of a few ship's 
lengths the water suddenly shoaled again, and she was brought 
to anchor in five fathoms, with some little difficulty. The 
utter inefficiency of the pilots was again displayed by their de- 
claring that the channel was on the right of the shoal, when 
our own soundings the day previous had shown that it was on 
the left side. 

About eight o'clock, Mr. Bennett made his appearance in 
the cutter. He and his crew were benumbed with cold, hav- 
ing passed the whole night on the river. After running about 
twenty miles, Ee stood in toward Harvey's Point, at the north- 
ern extremity of Tsung-Ming, where the fleet was to have 
waited ; but on inquiring of some fishermen, learned that it 
had gone further up the river. About ten n iles further, ho 
found the junks at anchor in a creek, on the southern bank. 



302 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

By the time they were collected together, it was ten o'clock at 
night. Capt. Potter and the comprador went on board the 
boats, which were ordered to follow the cutter, and return to 
the Susquehanna. They all got under way at the same time, 
but in the darkness of the night the cutter soon lost sight of 
them. She grounded repeatedly on the shoals, and finally got 
entangled among the bamboo fishing-stakes. The sea continu- 
ing to rise, and the gale to blow more violently, she was 
obliged to come to anchor until morning, when she put off 
again and beat down to us. Capt. Buchanan and the Com- 
missioner decided, on hearing Mr. Bennett's report, that it 
was expedient to return to "Woosung. The necessity of put- 
ting back was keenly regretted by all on board, but the ex- 
treme peril to which the vessel was exposed, in case the voy- 
age was continued, left no other alternative. We were obliged 
to wait for the first of the flood-tide, to run down to Woosung, 
which detained us until four o'clock. In the mean time, Capt. 
Potter and the comprador arrived with the other boats. The 
former reported that no dependence could be placed either on 
the chart or the Chinese pilots, and that the only way in 
which the Susquehanna could go up the river, would be to re- 
survey and buoy out the channel — a work which could not be 
accomplished in less than two weeks. The failure of our un- 
dertaking, the results of which promised to be of great interest 
and importance at the time, is another proof of the unfitness of 
large steam frigates for the service required in Chinese waters. 
Two small, active steamers, such as the English possessed in 
the Hermes and Salamander, would do more work than a score 
of unwieldy leviathans. 

We returned down the river the way we came, but on ap- 



RETURN TO SHANGHAI. 303 

proaching Woosung were again exposed to danger througli the 
ignorance of the pilots. The water suddenly shoaled, in spite of 
their assertion that we were in the deep channel, and our hull 
touched just as the engines began to hack water. We got off 
barely in time. The command having been given to let go the 
starboard anchor, a seaman, who was standing upon the port 
anchor, mistaking the order, and thinking it was about to drop 
with him, sprang into the river. He was picked up, however, 
with no other injury than a good drenching. 

The next morning we were delayed for some time in cross- 
ing the bar, by a large fleet of grain-junks, bound outward on 
their way to Pekin. A Portuguese lorcha, bearing the flag of 
the Taou-tai, passed us on her way up the Yang-tse-Kiang. 
The Susquehanna's hull touched on the bar, in two and three 
quarter fathoms, but the engines dragged us safely over. 
Within the bar lay a still larger fleet of junks, ready to pro- 
ceed to Pekin. Each of them had the words " Kiang-nan'''' 
on the stern, — literally " South of the River," i. e., the Yang- 
tse-Kiang. A handsome outward-bound junk bore the poetical 
name of the " Ocean Star." At noon we were again at 
Shanghai, and dropped anchor in the old position, in front of 
the American Consulate. 

So endedl the expedition to Nanking. 



Note. — The Susquehanna made a second attempt to reach Nanking 
in the summer of 1854, after her return from Japan. She had on hoard the 
Hon. Robert M'Lane, successor to Col. Marshal, as U. S. Commissioner to 
China. On this occasion, the small steam-tug Confucius was employed to 
run in advance of the Susquehanna and sound out the channel. After passing 



304 IXDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

Blonde SJaoal no serious difficiilty was experienced, a depth of from eight to 
seventeen fathoms having heen found in the Yang-tse-Kiang, as far aa 
Nanking. After the Commissioner had communicated with some of the 
rebel chiefs, and the object of the voyage was accomplished, a further ex- 
ploration of the river was made as far as Wu-hu, a large town sixty miles 
above Nanking. No foreign vessel had ever before advanced beyond the 
latter city. The river was foimd to be everywhere broad and deep, flowing 
through superb valleys ; the soil was fertile and capable of supporting au 
immense population. The current was very swift, and the Siisquehanna^ on 
her return, frequently ran at a speed of sixteen or seventeen knots. Her 
appearance, especially in the regions beyond Nanking, created the greatest 
astonishment among the Chinese, thousands of whom crowded the banks as 
she passed. The voyage was completed with entire success, no accident of 
any kind having occurred. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

A SHANGHAI JOURNAL. 

Lifo in Shanghai— The Rebels Expected— My Journal— The Fall of Nank'ng— The 
Grain Trade — Soo-Chow Threatened — Barbarities at Nanking — Eumors Concern- 
ing the Eebels — Capture of Lorchas — Threats towards Foreigners — Alarm of tha 
Tnou-tai — A Rebel Proclamation — Imperial Rewards and Pardons — Col. Marshall's 
Proclamation — Nanking Besieged by the Imperial Army — Flight from Shanghai- 
Sir George Bonham — Meetings of the Foreign Residents — Ransom for Shanghai — 
Soo-Chow not Taken — Uncertainty — Mr. Meadows at Soo-Chow — Defensive Works 
Commenced — Trouble with the Men of Foo-Kien — Marauders in the Country- 
Burning of Thieves — The Foo-Kien Grave-yard— Desertion of the City — A Ru- 
mored Battle— Death of Tien-teh — Mr. Meadows — Various Rumors — Return of the 
Scieiiee — Destruction of Chin-kiang-foo — The Excitement Subsides. 

After our inglorious return, the Embassy was again shifted 
to the American Consulate, and we became once more the 
guests of our kind friend, Mr. Cunningham. I was supplied 
with a room and the services of a young Chinese valet, and 
having, as etiquette prescribed, made the first calls upon the 
American and English residents, received in due course of time 
invitations to dinner in return. The presence of the Susque- 
hanna, with a fine band of music on board, was the occasion 
of a round of festivities, which were kept up with more or less 
energy, during the remainder of my stay. The presence of 
both the American and English Commissioners, and of five 
vessels of war at once, was an unusual event for Shanghai, and 



306 INDIA, CHINA, A-ND JAPAN. 

in spite*of the rumored approach of the rebels, the ignorance 
of their disposition towards foreigners, and the anticipation of 
an assault, society there had never before been so gay and ani- 
mated. 

During the first fortnight of April, we were in almost daily 
expectation of the appearance of the vanguard of the rebel 
army. Each hour brought a new rumor, and each day led to 
conclusions and conjectures which the morrow proved to be un- 
founded. Although the true rebellion did not commence until 
some months afterwards, and the recollection of those days 
has doubtless been obliterated from the memories of the foreign 
residents of Shanghai, by the more stirring events which fol- 
lowed, they were suflSciently exciting and interesting at the time. 
I know no better way of giving a picture of the uncertainty of 
all news in China, than by transcribing a few pages from a 
journal which I kept at the time : 

April 5th, 1858. 

At length we have positive news that Nanking has fallen. 
The Taou-tai of Shanghai admits it, which is a certain sign of 
its correctness. The information was received yesterday by 
M. de Montigny, the French Consul, through the Catholic 
Missionaries at Nanking, but the fact was doubted by most of 
the merchants here until the Taou-tai confirmed it. In the 
final assault, 20,000 Tartars were slain. The streets were 
blocked up with corpses, and 1,000 cash each was paid by the 
victors for their removal. Twenty thousand rebel troops were 
left to garrison the city, and a body of 40,000 was dispatched 
to intercept the imperial troops on +heir way from Pekin, to 
raise the siege. The rebels, it is said, will establish their 



THE GRAIN TRADE SOO-CHOW THREATENED. 307 

capital at Nanking, and for the remainder of the year will 
content themselves with consolidating their power in the 
South and West. 

One circumstance, which has operated in their favor, is 
the almost total destruction of the grain trade between the 
South and North, by means of the Grand Canal. This has 
been caused within a few years by inundation between the 
Yang-tse-Kiang and the Hoang-ho, which have damaged the 
Canal to such an extent as to render it impassable for the 
larger class of vessels. The immense transportations of grain, 
for the supply of the northern portion of China, which were 
formerly made entirely through this channel, are now trans- 
ferred to the coasting-junks, which sail at this season from 
Shanghai, Chapoo and Ningpo. 

The city of Soo-Chow, it is said, has paid a ransom of 
700,000 taels, to be exempted from capture and pillage. 
There seems to be no doubt of this, as business is beginning to 
revive there, and several Soo-Chow families, who had fled to 
this place, returned last night to their homes. It is not yet 
known whether a descent on Shanghai is meditated, but word 
reached us yesterday that Tien-teh does not intend to interfere 
in any way with foreigners in China. 

April Uh, 
Yesterday Mr. Forbes conversed with a native, who re- 
turned in one of the Taou-tai's lorchas from Nanking. The man 
is known to the Americans here, who place full reliance on his 
communication. He states that, after the taking of Nanking, 
the city was given up to sa^ljf and slaughter, during three days, 
and 20,000 Tartars — men, women and children — were massa- 



308 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

cred. 'The Viceroy was quartered and his remains nailed to 
the four gates of the city. Previous to his death his veins were 
opened and his blood made to flow into a large vessel of water, 
which the conquerors drank. His daughter, a girl of nineteen, 
was stripped in the public square, bound upon a cross, and her 
heart cut out. Many of the Tartar oflficers were thrown into 
boiling oil, or tied to stakes surrounded with bundles of oiled 
straw, and slowly roasted to death. The recital of these atro- 
cities has aroused the utmost horror and indignation among 
the foreign residents. They were previously, almost to a man, 
disposed to rejoice at the success of the rebels. 

That the Viceroy has been slain, is beyond a doubt. Col. 
Marshall has received the news officially, through the Governor 
of Soo-chow, upon whom the functions of Viceroy now de- 
volve, and who is supposed to possess the seals ; though an- 
other account says they were lost at Nanking. The ransom 
paid by the merchants of Soo-Chow only exempts the city from 
pillage. The rebels announce their determination to attack it, 
and the gates have been closed for several days. 

The rumors afloat to-day are still more alarming. The re- 
bels are stated to be marching to Hang-Chow, a large city 
about midway between here and Ningpo, at the hjoad of the 
intervening gulf Their proclamations have been received by 
the Governor of Soong-Keang, a city only forty miles from 
this place, and it is also supposed that they have been private- 
ly sent here, to the native merchants. Tien-teh was to have 
been formally inaugurated as Emperor yesterday, at Nanking. 
Among the tribute sent from Soo-Chow were 1,000 pieces of 
yellow sillk to be used on the occasion. 

The Taou-tai this morning sent word that twenty of the 



CAPTURE OF LORCHAS. 309 

lorchas wMcli he had dispatched to the relief of Nanking had 
fallen into the hands of the rebels; who, he feared, having 
the papers in their possession, would attempt to pass the Cus- 
tom House at Woosung under false colors, and gain possession 
of that port. A lorcha, which he had sent up a week ago, 
with $100,000, came back with an acknowledgment of its re- 
ception, signed by one of the rebel chiefs. It is reported that 
the captain, or supercargo, quietly delivered the money and 
took the receipt, thinking it was all right. The merchants here 
hinted to the Taou-tai that the sooner all his grain-junks were 
cleared for Pekin, the better, and he acted upon this sugges- 
tion. The river to-day was crowded with sails, and at least 
sixty or seventy junks dropped down to Woosung. There are 
still upwards of a thousand in port, and the foreigners are 
anxious that they should all be removed. In case of an attack 
they would undoubtedly be fired by the rebels, and set adrift 
to float down upon the foreign shipping. 

Mr. Meadows, the interpreter of the British embassy, has 
been informed by a Chinese banker that the rebels have ad- 
dressed the native inhabitants of Shanghai, bidding them be 
assured, as it is not them, but the foreign population, whom 
they intend to attack. After the rumors of Tien-teh's Chris- 
tianity and his pacific intentions towards foreigners, this 
news is rather startling, but there may be some reason for 
crediting it. The fact that the foreigners here have received 
no communication from the rebels is in itself suspicious — the 
custom of the latter having invariably been to send the pro- 
clamations in advance of their coming. Those who write upon 
their doors the word " Obedience''' are saved from pillage. 



310 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

• April Itk. 

This has been a day of excitement. About noon we re- 
ceived intelligence that an attack would certainly be made on 
Shanghai. There were rumors of a proclamation which stated 
that the Chinese inhabitants had nothing to fear, but that the 
Taou-tai must be given up, as they intended to punish him for 
sending supplies to Nanking. The foreign residents would not 
be interfered with, provided they gave security not to carry on 
the opium trade. There are now vessels lying at Woosung, 
laden with opium to the amount of $3,000,000. This rumor, 
if true, would stir up the English to more active measures. Sir 
George Bonham's avowed policy at present being a masterly 
inactivity. 

The Taou-tai is alarmed. He called to-day upon the 
English and American Consuls. He denies that Soo-Chow is 
fallen, says his wives and treasures are still in the city, but 
that, on the approach of danger, he will remove them to the 
Custom House, in the midst of the foreign settlement. About 
three o'clock several English officers imagined they heard the 
report of cannon at Woosung. I mounted to the roof of the 
Consulate, whence the shipping at that port is discernible, but 
could perceive no signs of firing. However, the English 
deemed it expedient to land 140 men with three or four field- 
pieces, and had companies of armed sailors patrolling the streets 
in the evening. 

A document has at last been procured, which was taken 
from one of the gates of Soo-Chow. It is issued in the name 
of two of the rebel generals, declaring their intention to take 
Chin-Keang-foo, Soo-Chow, Hang-Chow, Soong-Keang and 
Shanghai. The Mantchows, it says, are utterly annihilated, 



IMPERIAL REWARDfl AND PARDONS. 311 

and as for the foreigners, they are not human beings. The in- 
habitants of the three first-named cities have nothing to fear ; 
but all good Chinese residing in the two last should imme- 
diately remove to the distance of 100 li (33 miles), until the 
army has passed through, as it is by no means certain that 
there will not be fighting at Shanghai. This document ex- 
plains the great panic of the Chinese to-day, and their hasty 
emigration from the city, which has been going on without in- 
terruption, from sunrise to the present hour (11 p. m.). The 
streets are crowded with porters, carrying off chests and boxes 
of valuables. 

Mr. Taylor, an American Missionary, showed me some 
translations from the Pehin Gazette^ from which it is evident 
that the Imperial Court is in great consternation. The Em- 
peror declares his anxiety is so great that he can neither eat 
nor sleep. The capture of Woo-Chang-foo and Ngan-King is 
announced, but no mention is made of the siege of Nanking. 
The Taou-tai of this place is to be promoted for his loyalty. 
Several Generals, who were slain hy the rebels^ are promoted to 
the rank of Governor, and others who ran away, but died afler- 
wards, are, on that account, absolved from the punishment due 
to their cowardice ! So imbecile and absurd a Court as that 
of China never before governed a great Empire. Its duration 
or overthrow is a matter of complete indifference. 

Col. Marshall drew up a proclamation this evening, to be 
issued by the representatives of France and America, since Sir 
George Bonham refuses to co-operate. It is a brief but forcible 
paper, declaring that, security of life and property having been 
assured to the citizens of both countries on the faith of trea- 
ties with the Emperor of China, no invading army could be 



312 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

permitted to occupy the foreign settlement here, or exact a 
tribute from the inhabitants. Furthermore, that the pillage 
of Shanghai would endanger the foreign residents, and would 
be resisted. With regard to the contest now waging, a strict 
and impartial neutrality AYOuld be preserved. It is proposed 
to forward this proclamation to the rebels to-morrow. 

April 9th. 

Yesterday a dispatch was received, to the effect that Nan- 
king had been invested by the Imperial troops, and that the re- 
bel forces had gone back from Soo-Chow for its relief. It was 
addressed to the Taou-tai by Ileang-YuDg, a Tartar General 
who appears to have acted bravely at the taking of Woo-Chang- 
foo. According to the proclamation of the Taou-tai, this gen- 
eral arrived before Nankin on the 31st of March, in advance 
of the main body of the Imperial troops. He calls upon the 
inhabitants of the province not to be alarmed, as the rebels 
will be exterminated to a man. Now the proclamation of Lo 
and Wang, the two rebel generals, states that Tien-teh was 
crowned Emperor at Nanking on the 31st of March, and it is 
unlikely that both events occurred at the same time. Notwith- 
standing the proclamation of the Taou-tai the emigration from 
the city, yesterday, was more active than ever. The bund 
(quay) and streets were crowded with porters, conveying the 
goods and treasures of the wealthy class, who are flying for 
refuge to the villages in the country. 

No proclamation has yet been issued by the foreign repre- 
sentatives. Sir George Bonham yesterday sent around the draft 
of one, which differed in no material point from that of Col. 
Marshall, except that it was more diffuse, and carefully avoided 



MEETINGS OF THE FOREIGN RESIDENTS. 313 

speaking of the rebel forces. In order to secure tlie consent of 
all to a single declaration, Col. Marshall amalgamated the two, 
but Sir George still refuses to co-operate. M. de Montigny 
has subscribed to the American proclamation, which will pro- 
bably be issued this morning. The English still keep a body 
of armed sailors on shore, and on board all the vessels of war 
the usual drill with small arms is carried on every day. 

Yesterday afternoon the English and American residents 
met at their respective Consulates to adopt measures of defence. 
Twenty-seven Americans came together and discussed the mat- 
ter, in true American style : each one wanted to have his own 
v^ay, and only ten subscribed to Mr. Cunningham's proposals 
that a company should be formed, armed and exercised. Sev- 
eral of the Missionaries were quite ready to enter into this 
arrangement, and one of them, who is a graduate of West 
Point, offered to undertake the task of drilling them. The 
English acted with more unanimity, and the most of them 
subscribed their names to a similar proposal. 

The Chinese merchants of Shanghai have made up the 
lum of $340,000 for the ransom of the city. Yesterday a 
deputation from them was sent off to Tien-teh, to remain 
with him as hostages for the payment, until the city shall be 
taken. It is said that the Taou-tai himself subscribed largely 
to the sum. Several of the " long-haired rebels" are reported 
to be in the city, and there is no doubt that their spies arc al- 
ready here. Fifteen hundred desperadoes from the province 
of Foo-Kien are waiting the moment of attack, to commence 
pillaging ; but the Chinese who now remain have the impres- 
sion that the Americans and French will defend tho city. 
14 



314 . INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

Ajyril 10th. 

We have now come to tlie conclusion that for the present 
we have no reason to fear an attack on Shanghai. The army 
which was marching upon Soo-Chow has not yet made its ap- 
pearance before that city, having probably gone back to raise 
the siege of Nanking. Since the Taou-tai's proclamation no 
further news has been received, but the foreign residents are 
satisfied that they are safe for at least ten days longer. The 
Chinese continue to flock out of the city, though not to such 
an extent as during the previous two days. Now, since the 
alarm has subsided, the English have begun to adopt active 
measures of defence. Yesterday afternoon they had forty or 
fifty sailors at work, throwing up a three-gun redoubt, at the 
northern end of the race-course. The sailors and marines 
were drilled in artillery practice at the same time, on the green 
in the centre of the course. 

To-day the news of the advance of the Imperial army 
upon Nanking is confirmed. Mr. Meadows left here last night 
at midnight, for the rebel camp, disguised as a Chinaman. He 
took along a European dress, to wear after arriving, and is un- 
derstood to possess an order from the Taou-tai to the local 
authorities on the road, to facilitate his progress. 

April IZth. 
We are still in the same delightful state of uncertainty, in 
regard to the future. The rebels and the Imperial forces, 
commanded severally by Tfen-teh and Heang-Yuen, have met, 
and, according to Chinese custom, appointed day before yester- 
day for the battle : so that we may expect to hear something 
in two days more — but it is too much to hope that we will get 



DEFENSIVE WORKS. 815 

the truth, or any thing near it. On Monday evening, a letter 
was received from Mr. Meadows, who has reached Soo-Chow. 
He found the city perfectly tranquil. The deputation of mer- 
chants commissioned to take the ransom to Tien-teh, had re- 
turned after proceeding as far as Chin-Kiang-foo, where they 
found a body of the Imperial troops. They were obliged to 
hasten back, to prevent the ransom from falling into the wrong 
hands. This corroborates the report of the rebels having re- 
treated from Chin-Kiang-foo and fallen back upon Nanking, in 
order to concentrate their strength for an encounter with 
Heang- Yuen's army. 

Meanwhile the work of defence goes on. The English 
have taken it upon themselves to construct a double ditch from 
Soo-Chow creek across to the north-western angle of the city 
wall, covering the rear of the foreign settlement. An attack, 
if made at all, will most probably be made from the native 
city, across a creek which is commanded by the big guns of 
the Susquehanna. Ki a meeting held at the English Consu- 
late yesterday, the resident merchants decided to bear the ex- 
penses of the work. Several hundred coolies have been em- 
ployed upon the ditch, which is a slight affair, that would not 
resist a charge of European cavalry, but may prove sufficient 
against Chinese. The breastwork runs directly across the 
race-course, and to-day has reached the graveyard of the men 
of Foo-Kien, a body of whom came to stop proceedings. The 
Chinese have a great regard for the graves of their ancestors, 
which, indeed, are the only objects for which they exhibit the 
least reverence. These Foo-Kien people are a fierce, disorder- 
ly set, and the natives of Shanghai are in great dread of them. 
The assistant Engineer of the English steamer Salamande? 



SIG INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

mjsterionsly disappeared two days ago, and has not returned. 
"When last seen on Monday night, he was quarrelling with 
some Foo-Kien boatmen, and it is now surmised that they 
murdered him. Several dead bodies have floated down the 
river within a few days. 

"We hear already of bands of marauders in the vicinity. 
The magistrates of the different districts have formed a league 
for their protection, and have resolved to burn alive any 
man who is caught plundering. Two cases have occurred with- 
in a few days. On Monday a band of forty robbers entered a 
village about two miles from here and demanded a quantity of 
rice from the inhabitants — which was paid. Two of the men, 
however, lingered behind, and demanded of one of the villagers 
that they should be paid 20,000 cash (about $14). The man 
said he had but 8,000 cash in the house, which he would give 
them. While pretending to get it he found means to whisper 
to a coolie, who went out and summoned the people. The 
house was surroimded, the robbers taken and condemned to be 
burned. One of them was placed beneath the pile, and se- 
curely bound. The other was laid upon the top, and several 
times burst the cords which held him and s]3rang from the 
flames. He was relentlessly dragged back, until all power of 
resistance was lost. In a village about ten miles from here, 
four Canton men were found plundering a pawnbroker's shop, 
and suffered the same horrible fate. In every village is sus- 
pended a gong, which is to be sounded in case of an attack. 

It is from these bands of desperadoes that the older residents 
anticipate trouble. The Mission Establishment beyond Soo- 
Chow creek has been furnished with arms by Capt. Buchanan, 
and its inmates keep up a watch at night. Mr. Yates, of the 



TROUDi.i: WIT. I T!!i: .mi:n of foo-kKen. 317 

Baptist Mission, wlio had placed his family on board one of 
the merchant vessels, has returned to his house. In passing 
through the city yesterday, I noticed many streets which were 
almost entirely deserted. Mr. Shortrede, the Editor of the 
Friend of China, who came down from the hills two days ago, 
met two hundred boats on their way to Soo-Chow, laden with 
people and property. 

April 15th. 

The difficulty with the Foo-Kien men has not yet been 
settled. On the Chinese coolies being prevented by a band of 
them from digging up the graves, the English brought a field- 
piece, loaded it, and threatened to fire in case they did not 
retire. For a time they dispersed, but soon returned in much 
greater numbers. It is now said that they have decided to 
allow the breastwork to be thrown up, in case pledges are given 
by the English, that when the danger is over the earth shall 
be restored to its former place. This demand will be complied 
with and the work will proceed, but as the embankments are 
made upon the line of a proposed road which the merchants 
have been endeavoring to open, it may be doubted whether 
the latter will keep faith with the men of Foo-Kien. On my 
visit to some American Missionaries in the city yesterday, I 
was struck with its air of desolation. There are streets where 
hardly a house is inhabited. Where we found crowds on our 
first arrival, there is now scarcely a single soul to be seen. I 
have no doubt that 50,000 persons have emigrated from the 
city within the past two or three weeks. 

News reached us yesterday, that a battle had been fought 



318 INDIA, CHINA AND JAI'AK. 

before the walk of Nanking, in whicli tlie advantage rested with 
the Imperial troops. Great numbers were slain on both sides, 
and the revolutionary army had retired v.'ithiu the walls. A 
letter was also received from Mr. Meadows, who is still at Soo- 
Chow, where he intends remaining. He repeats the stories 
which had already reached us, with the additional fact that 
Ti'en-teh is actually dead, as was surmised by some, and that 
the name of the present chief is Tae-ping. Mr. Meadows ap- 
pears in European costume, and has received no molestation. 
He has put himself in connection with the mandarins, and 
expects to be protected. The celebrated pagodas on Golden 
Island in the Yang-tse-Kiang, opposite Chin-Kiang-foo, are 
said to have been entirely destroyed by the rebels, and all the 
Buddhist priests beheaded. If this be true, the library of 
Chinese Literature on the island — one of the most valuable 
in the Empire — ^has probably perished also. 

April 11 th. 
Flying rumors from Nanking, favorable to the rebels, now 
begin to reach us. It is quite evident, from the tenor of the 
various reports, that the Imperialists have at least gained no 
success. An intelligent Chinaman, who was on board one of 
the Taou-tai's lorchas, in the neighborhood of Nanking, states 
that the accounts we had received of the valor of Heang-Yuen, 
the Tartar general, are without foundation. The people have 
unbounded confidence in the rebels, whom he represents as just 
and humane in their dealings with them. Heang-Yuen, he says, 
keeps aloof and avoids giving battle. A native messenger 
dispatched by the Rev. Mr. Taylor, about two weeks ago, re- 



RETURN OF T[IE BARK " SCIE^ICE." 319 

turned yesterday, having succeeded in reacliing Nanking. His 
account is greatly exaggerated ; lie says there are 500,000 
Tartar troops around Nanking, and an equal number of rebels 
within the walls. The latter never intended to have advanced 
upon Shanghai, and the report of their march towards Soo-Chow 
after the taking of Nanking was occasioned by the flight of the 
Imperial troops in that direction. 

The American bark Science^ despatched by the Taou-tai to 
the relief of the Imperial fleet, arrived at Woosung on Thurs- 
day night, and Gapt. Roundy was here at breakfast yesterday 
morning. He only ascended the Yang-tse-Kiang seventy-five 
miles, and attributes his difficulties entirely to the Chinese 
pilots. There is water enough for the largest vessels in the 
channel, which, however, is narrow and tortuous, A letter 
was received last night from Capt. Bush, of the schooner 
Dewan^ which had reached Chin-Kiang-foo. He states that he 
had landed and walked through the city, which was entirely 
deserted — ^not a soul to be seen. The inhabitants had all srone 
to Nanking, but under what circumstances, he does not inform 
us. A letter was also received from Mr. Meadows, who had 
been deserted by all his servants, and was unable to procure 
a boat to proceed further. 

The foreign residents now no longer apprehend an attack, 
but the native merchants are still in a state of alarm. 



The period covered by these extracts from my journal was 
the most exciting portion of my residence at Shanghai. After 
the first alarm had subsided, the fugitive Chinese returned, 
trade resumed its usua. course, and the place enjoyed several 
months of comparative quiet. Durincr the following year. 



3^0 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

1854, hfjwever, all that we had anticipated in the spring 
of 1853 actually came to pass. The city fell into the hands 
of the rebels, and the defence the foreign merchants had 
thrown up as a protection against them, served, singularly 
enough, to protect themselves from the assaults of the Im- 
perialists. 



CHAPTEE XXVI. 

A CHINESE PROMENADE. 

Chinese and Foreigners at Shanghai — Situation of the City — A Chinese Prorrenade- 
Burying-Grounds — Money for the Dead — A Baby Tower — The Ningpo House— 
CoflBlns — Chinese Gypsies— A Street of the Suburbs— The City Gate — A Chinese 
Pawnbroker's Shop— A Temple— The Statue of Boodh— A Priest at his Devotions 
— Stenches of the Streets— Beggars— Shops — View of the Tea-Garden — Chinese 
Gamblers — An Artistic Mountebank — The Baptist Chapel — Scene from its Tower — 
The Hills — Fanciful Signs — Missionary Labors in China — Apathy of the People— A 
Chinese Eesidence — ^The Library — The City Prison— Torture of the Prisoners — A 
Bath House— Character of the Mongol Form- The Tutelar Deity of Shanghai— 
Boodh at Sunset- Kite Flying. 

During the two weeks chronicled in the foregoing journal 
notwithstanding the warlike excitement which was more or 
less shared by all, I devoted several days to visiting the 
Chinese city and the points of interest in its environs. Unlike 
Canton and the other cities of the South, Shanghai is thrown 
open without restriction to the foreigner, and he may even 
wander unmolested for a distance of thirty or forty miles into 
the interior. The natives there, instead of despising the " out- 
side barbarians," look up to them with profound respect ; the 
cry of ^^ Fan-kwei! '''' (foreign devil !) which pursues you in 
Canton, is never heard in the streets ; the stupid faces of the 
14^ 



322 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

populace are turned towards you with an expression of good 
will, and there is no hindrance whatever to your studies of the 
peculiarities of Chinese character and habits. I was soon quite 
satisfied with the extent of my observations. Superficial as 
they were, I found nothing in the subject sufficient to tempt 
me into a further endurance of the disgusting annoyances of a 
Chinese city. I shall ask the reader's patience during the 
promenade on which I propose to take him, since it is for the 
first and last time. The scenes we shall witness are curious, m 
spite of their disagreeable features, and a conscientious trav- 
eller must describe things as he sees them. But, first let me 
give some^necessary details of the topography of Shanghai. 

The city lies upon the right bank of the Whang-po (or, as it is 
called by foreigners, the Woosung) River, about fourteen miles 
above its junction with the Yang-tse-Kiang. The river here 
makes a sharp bend to the south, so that the city faces the east. 
The Chinese town, which is walled, is in the form of a semi- 
circle, with its chord upon the river. It is about five miles in 
circumference, and contains a population of 300,000. To the 
north of this, and separated from it by a small creek, is the 
foreign settlement, which extends along the river for three- 
quarters of a mile. The houses are large and handsome, fre- 
quently good examples of the simpler forms of the Palladian 
style, and surrounded by gardens. Along the water is a broad 
quay, called the " hund^^ (from an Indian word,) which is the 
evening resort of the residents, and the great centre of business 
and gossip. The foreign community, exclusive of the mission- 
aries, consists of about 170 persons, 14 of whom are ladies. 
It is, beyond dispute, the most cheerful, social and agreeable 
community in China. 



BURYING-GROUNDS MONEY FOR THE DEAD. 323 

I was greatly indebted to the Rev. Charles Taylor, of the 
Methodist, and the Rev. M. T. Yates, of the Baptist Mission, 
for pilotage through the mazes of Shanghai, and explanations 
of the many curious scenes we witnessed by the way. Although 
it required several short excursions to make me familiar with 
the objects which most interest the stranger, I hope, in the 
course of one extended walk, to bring them all under the 
reader's notice, so that there will be no necessity for again 
taking him within the city walls. 

Leaving the American Consulate, we proceed westward 
along the banks of a little creek, lined with willow trees. 
Beyond the limits of the settlement we come upon exten- 
sive burying-grounds, where rank grass and weeds hide the 
tombstones, centuries old. These places are sacred, and 
though the dead have long been forgotten, and their families 
become extinct, no one dares to interfere with the soil under 
which they rest. In the midst of one of these neglected cem- 
eteries, stands a horse, of the natural size, sculptured in gray 
granite. On many of the tombs are heaps of silvered paper, 
made into the form of ingots of sycee silver, which are car- 
ried there and burnt, for the purpose of paying the expenses 
of the dead, in the other world. The usual order of things is 
reversed in this case, and what is merely the shadow here, be- 
comes the substantial silver there. Judging from the quanti- 
ties consumed, the dead must live in a most extravagant style. 
Between the graves and the city wall stands a low building, in 
a clump of cedar trees. This is one of the " Baby Towers," 
of which there are several near the city. All infants who die 
under the age of one year are not honored with burial, but 
done up in a package, with matting and cords, and thrown into 



821 



INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 



the tower^ or rather well, as it is sunk some distance below 
the earth. The top, which rises about ten feet above the 
ground, is roofed, but an aperture is left for casting in the 
bodies. Looking into it, we see that the tower is filled nearly 
to the roof with bundles of matting, from which exhales a 
pestilent effluvium. 

Some distance further, near the north-western angle of the 
city wall, we reach the " Ningpo House," as it is called, a 
beneficial institution of an interesting character. It was built 
and is supported by a club of Shanghai merchants and 
traders, who are natives of Ningpo, for the purpose of afiford- 
ing relief to those of their countrymen who may become des- 
titute, and taking charge of the bodies of those who die. It 
is a collection of low buildings, principally of stone, and se- 
parated by paved court-yards into the different departments 
which it embraces. In one part we find the aged and infirm 
furnished with food and shelter, both of the plainest kind; 
in another we enter what appears to be a great coffin ware- 
house, but is in fact a repository of dead bodies. The ponderous 
coffins of poplar or sycamore plank, stained of a dark red 
color, and covered in some instances with gilded hieroglyphics, 
are ranged in compartments, according to the sex and time of 
decease of the occupant. They are thus kept for three years,. 
when, if not reclaimed by their relatives at Ningpo and trans- 
ported thither for burial, they are deposited in a cemetery ad- 
joining the buildings. The bodies are firmly packed in fine 
lime, wMch prevents any exhalations from the coffins. We 
should not suspect that in the warehouse through which we 
pass there are upwards of a hundred corpses, some of which 
have been there nearly the whole of the allotted time. There 



CHINESE GYPSIES. 825 

are several other beneficial institutions of a similar character in 
Shanghai, and their provisions appear to be carried out with 
fidelity and conscientiousness. In each of the establishments 
there is a hall hung with lanterns, and usually containing the 
idol of one of their gods, wherein the Directors meet, to smoke, 
drink tea, and discuss their afikirs. 

Not far from the Ningpo House, there is a camp of Chinese 
Gypsies. These outcasts have little in common with the 
Gypsies of Europe and the East. They are of pure Mongolian 
blood, and only resemble the former in their wandering habits, 
their distinct social government, and their mendicity, which 
constitutes, in fact, almost their only means of support. Their 
degradation is almost without parallel, and I doubt if there be 
any thing in human nature more loathsome than their appear- 
ance. Here they are, on this bleak hillock, over which a few 
stunted cedars are scattered. Their lairs — for they cannot be 
called tents — of filthy matting are not more than four feet high, 
and barely large enough to contain two persons. They are 
built upon the cold, wet earth, with perhaps a little straw to 
protect the bodies of the inmates. Two or three stones and a, 
heap of ashes, on the side of the hill, are all their domestic ap- 
pliances. As we approach, a wild head, with long, tangled 
hair, and deep-set, glaring black eyes, is thrust out from each df 
the lairs. Some lie still, merely following us with their gaze, 
like a beast surprised in his den ; others crawl out, displaying 
garments that are dropping to pieces from sheer rottenness, and 
figures so frightfully repulsive and disgusting, that we move away 
repenting that we have disturbed this nest of human vermin. 

We now enter an outer street, leading to the northern gate 
of the city. It is narrow, paved with rough stones, and carpeted 



32G INDIA. CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

with a deposit of soft mud. The houses on either hand are of 
wood, two stories high, and have a dark, decaying air. The 
lower stories are shops, open to the street, within which the 
pig-tailed merchants sit behind their counters, and look at us 
out of the corners of their crooked eyes, as we go by. The 
streets are filled with a crowd of porters, water-carriers, and 
other classes of the laboring population, and also, during the 
past week or two, with the families and property of thousands 
of the inhabitants, who are flying into the country, in anticipa-. 
tion of war. At the corners of the streets are stands for the sale 
of fruit and vegetables, the cheaper varieties of which can be 
had in portions valued at a single cash — the fifteenth part of a 
cent. A bridge of granite slabs crosses the little stream of 
which I have already spoken, and after one or two turnings we 
find ourselves at the city gate. It is simply a low stone arch, 
through a wall ten feet thick, leading into a sort of bastion 
for defence, with an inner gate. Within the space is a guard- 
house, where we see some antiquated instruments, resembling 
pikes and halberds, leaning against the wall, but no soldiers. 
A manifesto issued by the Taou-tai — probably some lying re- 
port of a victory over the rebels — is pasted against the inner 
gate, and there is a crowd before it, spelling out its black and 
vermilion hieroglyphics. 

Turning to the left, we advance for a short distance along 
the inside of the wall, which is of brick, about twenty feet 
thick, with a notched parapet. Carefully avoiding the heaps 
of filth and the still more repulsive beggars that line the path, 
we reach a large, blank building, about two hundred feet 
square. This is a pawnbroker's shop — for the Chinese are civ- 
ilized enoush for that — and well worth a visit. The front en- 



327 



trance admits us into tlie office, where the manager and his at- 
tendants fLro busily employed behind a high counter, and a 
crowd of applicants fills the space in front. We apply for 
permission to inspect the establishment, which is cheerfully 
granted ; a side-door is opened, and we enter a long range of 
store-houses, filled to the ceiling with every article of a 
Chinese household or costume, each piece being folded up se- 
parately, numbered and labelled. One room is appropriated 
wholly to thd records, or books registering the articles deposited. 
There are chambers containing thousands of pewter candle- 
sticks ; court-yards piled with braziers ; spacious lofts, stuffed to 
the ceiling with the cotton gowns and petticoat-pantaloons of 
the poorer classes, and chests, trunks, boxes and other cabinet- 
ware in bewildering quantities. At a rough estimate, I should 
say that there are at least 30,000 costumes ; when we asked the 
attendant the number, he shrugged his shoulders and said : 
" Who could count them ? " There are three or four other 
establishments, of nearly similar magnitude, in the city. 
They are regulated by the Government, and are said to be con- 
ducted in a fair and liberal spirit. 

At the next angle of the wall stands an old Boodhist 
temple, before the door of which lie two granite lions, broken 
and overthrown. Squatted on a pedestal within is a gilded 
idol, about five feet high, while in recesses on either hand are 
the guardians or watchers of the temple — ^gigantic figures, armed 
with swords, and glittering with the gaudiest colors of the 
Chinese pallet. We pass through this vestibule and ascend a 
flight of steps to an inner temple, where the god appears in 
colossal form, and in spite of his slack hands fallen on his 
knees, his heavy hanging abdomen, his bloated cheeks, and the 



328 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

good-hijmored silliness of his face, his appearance is at least 
respectable. Any colossal representation of the human body, 
if not an intentional caricature, is to a certain degree majestic 
and impressive; and though the Chinese Boodh stands, in 
rank of idolship, far below the Indian Brahma and the grand 
Egyptian Amun-Re, one cannot flout him to his face. In a 
chamber adjoining this we find a female divinity — the Queen 
of Mercy — whose Chinese title I forget. Hearing a continual 
thumping noise in the room beyond, we push open the door and 
surprise a Boodhist priest at his devotions. He is seated at 
a table with a book open before him, from which he is chanting 
prayers with a monotonous, drawling tone, while with one hand 
he thumps incessantly with a small wooden hammer upon a 
hollow drum of the same material. This drum is called by 
the same name as the great fish upon which the earth rests, and 
which its sound soothes into quiet. When, at any time, even 
for a minute, there is no drum beaten throughout the whole 
world, the fish at once becomes uneasy, and his contortions 
occasion earthquakes. The priest wears a yellow robe, his skin 
is yellow, his head is shaven bald, his face is puckered with 
wrinkles, and altogether he is one of the oddest and funniest 
old men that ever was seen. He looks up, nods, with a queer 
twinkle in his eyes, looks down again, and up again, but never 
once pauses in his chanting or his thumping. 
^ We now take a street which strikes into the heart of the 
y city, and set out for the famous " Tea Gardens." The pavement 
is of rough stones, slippery with mud, and on one side of th? 
street is a ditch filled with black, stagnant slime, from which 
arises the foulest smell. Porters, carrying buckets of ofi'al, 
brush past us ; public cloacw stand open at the corners, and 



STENCHES OP THE STREETS BEGGARS. 329 

the clothes and persons of the unwashed laborers and beggars 
distil a reeking compound of still more disagreeable exhala- 
tions. Coleridge says of Cologne : 

** I counted two and seventy stenches, 
All well defined — and several stinks ; " 

but Shanghai, in its horrid foulness, would be flattered by such 
a description. I never go within its walls but with a shudder, 
and the taint of its contaminating atmosphere see^g to hang 
about me like a garment long after I have left them^^Even in 
the country, which now rejoices in the opening spring, all the 
freshness of the season is destroyed by the rank ammoniated 
odors arising from pits of noisome manure, sunk in the fields. 
Having mentioned these things, I shall not refer to them 
again ; but if the reader would have a correct description of 
Shanghai, they cannot be wholly ignored. y''^^ 

It requires some' care to avoid contact with the beggars who 
throng the streets, and we would almost as willingly touch a 
man smitten with leprosy, or one dying of the plague. They 
take their stations in front of the shops, and supplicate with 
a loud, whining voice, until the occupant purchases their de- 
parture by some trifling alms ; for they are protected by the 
law in their avocation, and no man dare drive them forcibly 
from his door. As we approach the central part of the city, 
the streets become more showy and a trifle cleaner. The shops 
are large and well arranged, and bright red signs, covered with 
golden inscriptions, swing vertically from the eaves. All the 
richest shops, however, are closed at present, and not a piece ol 
the celebrated silks of Soo-Chow, the richest in China, is to 
be found in the city. The manufactures m jade-stone, carved 



330 INDIA, CniNA, AND JAPAN. 

bamboe, and tlie furniture of Ningpo, inlaid with ivory and 
boxwood, are still to be had in profusion, but they are more 
curious than elegant. Indeed, I have seen no article of Chinese 
workmanship which could positively be called beautiful, unless 
it was fashioned after a European model. Industry, perse- 
verance, and a wonderful faculty of imitation belong to these 
people ; but they are utterly destitute of original taste. 

The " Tea Garden" is an open space near the centre of the 
city, devoted to the recreation of the populace. In the midst 
of a paven square is a pool of greenish, stagnant water, in 
which stands a building of two stories, with the peaked^ curved, 
overhanging roofs, which we always associate with Chinese ar- 
chitecture. It is reached by bridges which cross the water in 
curious zigzag lines, so that you walk more than double the 
actual distance. On the opposite side are several similar build- 
ings, surrounded by masses of artificial rock-work, but the only 
token of a garden is a pair of magnolia trees, clothed in the 
glory of their fragrant, snowy blossoms. Every body remem- 
bers the old-fashioned plates of blue Liverpool ware, with a 
representation of two Chinese houses, a willow tree, a bridge 
with three Chinamen walking over it, and two crows in the 
air. These plates give a very good representation of the 
Tea Garden, which is a fair sample of what is most picturesque 
in Chinese life. The buildings are tea-houses, and on entering 
we find them filled with natives of all classes, drinking strong 
decoctions of the herb, and smoking their slender pipes of 
bamboo, with bowls about the size of a lady's thimble. The tea 
is prepared in enormous pots suspended over furnaces of clay. 
The master of the house shows us a vacant table, but we de- 
cline his hint, and pass out to view the crowds in the square. 



CHINESE MOUNTEBANKS. 331 

Here i:^ a man leading a white goat with only three legs, 
which he wishes to-sell, but on a careful examination we per- 
ceive that one of the fore legs has been neatly amputated while 
the animal was young. There are half a dozen gaming tables, 
each surrounded by its crowd of players and spectators. 
The Chinese are inveterate gamblers, and as the stakes at 
many of these tables are as low as a single cash, few are so 
poor that they cannot make a venture. One of the methods 
has some resemblance to the "little jokers," so well known at 
our race courses. The player has three sticks, the ends of 
which are thrust through his fingers. There is a hole through 
each of the other ends, which are held in his hand; a cord is 
passed through one of them, and the play consists in guessing 
tvhich one, as the cord may be transferred from one to the 
other by a quick movement of the fingers. I put a " cash" 
on the board, make a guess, and win a cake of suspicious-look- 
ing candy, which I give to the nearest boy, to the great merri- 
ment of the bystanders. There are also stands for the sale of 
pea-nuts, reminding us of the classic side-walks of Chatham 
street, and for the sake of Young America, we must invest a , 
few cash in his favorite fruit. But here is an entertainment of 
an entirely novel character. A man seated on the pavement, 
holds in his hand a white porcelain tile, about a foot square. 
This he overspreads with a deep-blue color, from a sponge 
dipped in a thin paste of indigo, and asks us to name a flower. 
I suggest the lotus. He extends his fore-finger — a most re- 
markable fore-finger, crooked, flexible as an elephant's trunk, 
and as shaT'p as if the end had been whittled ofi" — gives three or 
four quick dashes across the tile, and in ten seconds or less, 
lo! there is the flower, exquisitely drawn and shaded, its snowy 



332 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

cup hafiging in the midst of its long swaying leaves. Three 
more strokes, and a white bird with spread wings, hovers over 
it; two more, and a dog stands beside it. The rapidity and 
precision of that fore-finger seem almost miraculous. He 
covers the tile with new layers of color, and flower after flower 
is dashed out of the blue ground. 

The Chapel of the Baptist Mission is in a street near the 
Tea Garden, and its tower, about seventy feet high, afi"ords an 
excellent panoramic view of the city and surrounding country. 
Looking down upon the city, we see nothing but a mass of 
peaked roofs, covered with tiles which are blackened by age, 
and here and there the open courts and heavier architecture 
of temples. The serrated line of the wall surrounds it, and 
the rich alluvial land extends wide beyond, dotted with vil- 
lages, clumps of cedar, groves of fruit-trees, or the mounds of 
ancient cemeteries. The broad river winds through the cen 
tre of the landscape, and the number of junks gliding over its 
surface with their square sails spread to the east wind, give 
animation to the scene. In front of the city they are an- 
chored in a dense mass a mile in length, and numberiog not 
less than two thousand. The din of gongs and drums and the 
sputtering of fire-crackers, burnt to secure the aid of the wa- 
ter-gods, reaches ub at this distance. Eight or nine miles up 
the river stands a tall pagoda, and s-s the air is clear to-day, 
the summits of " The Hills," as they are ^3^11ed by the foreign 
residents, are faintly visible in the veet. These hills, which 
are a favorite resort of foreigners diim"»g tlie hot season, are 
twenty-five miles distant. They are the first range ^h^oh breaks 
the vast level of the plains, and command a vic^ of the large 



FANCIFUL SIGNS. 833 

town of Soong-Keang in the interior, and the country stretch- 
ing toward Soo-Chow. 

Looking to the river, our eyes are attracted by a large tea- 
warehouse, on the wall of which are painted four enormous 
characters. Our missionary friend interprc''^' them as signify- 
ing " The Place of Heavenly prepared Leaves." In the fanci- 
ful and figurative character of their signs, the Chinese remind 
us of the Arabic races. There is a shop for the sale of sam- 
shoo, or rice-whiskey, in Hong-Kong, which bears over its door 
the following inscription : " The joys of Paradise are nothing 
but a state of perpetual intoxication ! " The announcements 
of vessels up for California are headed with the enticing call : 
" To the Golden Mountains ! " 

Notwithstanding the efforts of many zealous and devoted 
missionaries who have been sent to China, the number of genu- 
ine converts is very limited. The Chinese nature appears to be 
so thoroughly passive, that it is not even receptive. A sort 
of listless curiosity leads them to fill the chapels of the mis- 
sionaries, and to gather in crowds around those who preach in 
the public places, but when the exhortation is finished, away 
they go, without the least ripple of new thought in the stag- 
nant waters of their minds. The mental inertia of these people 
seems to be almost hopeless of improvement. Even while the 
present rebellion is going on — a struggle which, one would sup- 
pose, would enlist their sympathies, if a single spark of patriot- 
ism or ambition remained — the great mass of the people main- 
tain the most profound apathy. Some advocate of universal 
peace has cited China as the example of a nation which has 
successfully pursued a pacific policy ; but I say, welcome be 
the thunder-storm which shall scatter and break up, though by 



33 4 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

the ra«a"s of fire and blood, this terrible stagnation ! Who 
would not exclaim with Tennyson: 

" Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay." 

But we are cu^'ous to inspect the dwelling of a Chinaman 
of the better class, and our friend, who is fortunately able to 
assist us, conducts us to the house of a wealthy old merchant. 
It is a stone building, recently erected, and every thing about 
it indicates great neatness, and an approach to taste in the 
owner. In the open verandahs are boxes of the mau-tan, or 
rose-scented peony, with gorgeous white and crimson blossoms, 
and the lan-tvhei, a water-plant of an orchideous nature, with 
a long spike of yellowish-green flowers. The mau-tan also 
decorates the rooms, which are hnng with lanterny of stained 
glass. The furniture is of wood, of a stiff, uncomfortable pat- 
tern, but elaborately carved. The owner, an urbane, polite old 
gentleman, regales us with cups of stewed tea, whose delicate 
aroma compensates for the absence of milk and sugar, and asks 
us up stairs into his library. The shelves are covered with 
Chinese works, bound in their wooden covers, and in the centre 
of the room stands a bronze frame, with three apertures at the 
top, and a bundle of arrows. The latter are the implements 
of a game which the host explains to us, by taking the arrows 
to the further end of the room, seizing one by the tip of the 
shaft with his thumb and fore-finger, and throwing it so as to 
fall into one of the small circular openings of the frame. We 
try a game, whereof the victory, owing to his more extensive 
practice, remains with him. 

Toward the northern side of the city is the prison. On 
each side of the outer gate is painted the figure of an avenging 



A CHIINESE PRISON. 665 

divinity, whose black face and glaring eyeballs strike terror 
into the minds of the natives. This gate gives admittance to 
a quadrangular court, surrounded by ranges of cages or cells, 
wherein the prisoners are subjected to different degrees of 
punishment, according to their crimes. Some are in chambers 
divided by strong bamboo gratings ; others at large, with heavy 
shackles fastened to their legs ; and the more criminal cases 
are confined separately in narrow cages, which bind them in the 
smallest and most cramped space, with their knees drawn up 
to their chins. Their heads project through holes in the top, 
and as we pass, their faces are turned to us with a wild, haggard 
look of suffering. Some of them have been kept for weeks, 
immovable in those frames of torture, and their condition is too 
horrible for description. The cell adjoining that in which they 
^nd divided from it only by some bamboo stakes, is the 
e appropriated by the Chinese authorities for foreign pris- 
oners. On the beams are carved a number of names, princi- 
pally German, and probably those "oFrefractor^ftftl^. The 
English Government, in those ports where the Consul possesses 
judicial authority — as in China, Turkey, and the Barbary 
States — always erects a separate prison for the confinement of 
English subjects. Our Government, however, from an admira- 
ble economy, prefers thrusting its citizens into these loathsome 
dens, the condition and associations of which increase tenfold 
the horrors of imprisonment. A few days ago the entire crew 
of an Amerian vessel in port passed a night in the very cell 
before us. 

On our way to the city wall w^e pass one of the public 
baths, and curiosity induces us to step in. The building is 
low, damp and dirty, and filled with a rank, steamy, unclean 



336 - INDIA, CHINA* AND JAPAN. 



atmosfiliere. It consists of three apartments, in one of which 
the bathers undress, bathe in the next, and lounge smoking on 
the benches, in an unembarrassed state of nudity, in the third. 
As it is towards evening, they belong mostly to the lower 
classes, and look quite as filthy after the bath as before. The 
water is not changed throughout the day, and its appearance 
and condition may perhaps be imagined. The small tank is 
filled in the morning, and kept heated by a furnace under it. 
The price of a bath diminishes in proportion as the water gets 
dirty, until, in the evening, it falls to a single cash (the fifteenth 
part of a cent). By holding my breath, I remain in the dark, 
reeking den, long enough to see two yellow forms immersed in 
the turbid pool, and then rush out stifled and nauseated. 
Among the bathers in the outer room there are several strong, 
muscular figures, but a total want of that elegant symmetry 
which distinguishes the Caucasian and Shemitic races. They 
are broad-shouldered and deep-chested, but the hips and loins 
are clumsily moulded, and the legs have a coarse, clubby 
character. We should never expect to see such figures assume 
the fine^ free attitudes of ancient sculpture. But here, as every 
where, the body is the expression of the spiritual nature. 
There is no sense of what we understand by Art — Grace, Har- 
mony, Proportion — in the Chinese nature, and therefore wo 
look in vain for any physical expression of it. De Quincey, 
who probably never saw a Chinaman, saw this fact with the 
clairvoyant eye of genius, when he said : " If I were con- 
demned to live among the Chinese, I should go mad." This 
is a strong expression, but I do not hesitate to adopt it. 

Before terminating this long and, perhaps, wearisome ram- 
ble, let us enter the great temple of the tutelar divinity of 



BOODH AT SUNSET. 337 

Slianghai. The obese idol, cross-legged, and with his hands 
upon his knees, is fifteen feet high, and seated upon a pedestal 
of about twelve feet. He is gilded from head to foot, and 
looms grandly through the dusk of the lofty hall. On each 
side are the gilded statues of nine renowned Chinese saints 
and sages — eighteen in all — of the size of life. The sacred 
drum, four or five feet in diameter, and raised on a prop of 
heavy timbers, stands on one side of the entrance, and the great 
bell — a universal feature of Boodhist temples — on the other. 
We beat the drum and strike the bell with a mallet, until 
the temple rings with a peal of barbaric sound. The priests 
look on, smiling, for the act is not one of irreverence, but of 
devotion, in their eyes, and while we are amusing ourselves, we 
do homage to the great Boodh. The broad interior of the 
temple is dusky with the evening shadows, when the last red 
beam of sunset, falling through an upper window, strikes full 
upon the golden face of the god, lighting that only, so that the 
large features blaze upon us out of the gloom, as if moulded in 
living fire. It is as if Boodh had asserted his insulted majesty, 
and while he is thus transfigured we own that he is sublime. 

On our return to the foreign settlement, we hear loud, 
humming noises in the air, and looking up, see a strange collec- 
tion of monsters hovering in the sky. An enormous bird, with 
outspread wings of red and gold, is soaring directly over our 
heads ; a centipede, twenty feet long, is wriggling yonder ; a 
fanciful dragon shoots hither and thither ; and a mandarin, in 
his robes of state, makes his airy ko-iows, or salutations, to the 
gazers below. The natives are indulging in their national 
amusement of kite-flying, and as long as there is light enough 
left they will continue, with the eagerness of children, to ma- 
15 



338 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

nceuvre their painted toys. We draw a long breath of relief 
when we have passed the wall and the muddy creek, and as we 
walk homeward, mentally revolve the question, whether it is 
worth satisfying one's curiosity at the expense of so much an- 
noyance and disgust. 



CHAP TER XXVII. 

EARTHQUAKES AND OFFICIAL VISITS. 

An Earthquake— Sensations it Produced— Its Effects— Additional Sliocks— The Bowl- 
ing Alley— Hairs in the Soil— A Shower of Sand— Yisit of the Taou-tai to Col. 
Marshall— Chinese Yisiting Cards— The Taou-tai's Appearance— Eeception of the 
Dignitaries— A Chinese Military Ecview— The Soldiers and their Equipment*— 
Their Discipline— Uncouth Weapons — Absurdity of the Parade — The Commissioner 
visits the Taou-tai— Eeception— The Taou-tai's Eesidence — Chinese Eefreshments — 
Departure. 

Our attention was for a time diverted from the alarm and ex- 
citement occasioned by rumors of the approach of the rebels, 
through the unexpected visitation of an earthquake, which 
occurred on Thursday night, the 14th of April. On that 
evening, M. de Montigny, the French Consul, entertained Col. 
Marshall at dinner. Capt. Buchanan and Purser Barry, of 
the Susquehanna, Mr. Cunningham, Capt. de Plas, of the 
French steamer Cassini, and several other gentlemen were 
present. About a quarter past 11 o'clock, as the guests were 
taking leave, some of them being still in the passage, putting 
on their overcoats, for it was a dark, drizzling night, there was 
a sudden, violent noise, the timbers of the house cracking and 
the walls swaying to and fro. I was standing just under the 
eaves at the time, and my first impression was that the building 
was tumbling down upon me. I made a spring into the court, 



340 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

with a strange feeling of bewilderment, for every thing was 
reeling and unsteady. All this was the work of an instant. 
There was a cry from the ladies within, and they came rushing 
out in great terror, exclaiming : "an earthquake ! an earth- 
quake ! " We stood in the open court-yard, awaiting a second 
shock. The earth continued to heave with a slow, regular 
motion, gradually diminishing, until the throbs ceased. It 
produced a slight giddiness and nausea in some of us. Im- 
mediately after the shock passed away, a wild outcry arose 
from the Chinese city, and the large wooden drums in the tem- 
ples were heard sounding far and near. The object of this 
was to soothe the great fish upon which the earth rests, and by 
whose uneasiness the earthquake was caused. 

On reaching the Consulate, we found that everybody in the 
house had felt the shock, and the chandeliers in the drawing- 
room were still vibrating from it. Mr. L., one of the clerks, 
stated that, his attention was first called to it by seeing several 
doors which had been locked, fly open without any apparent 
agency. In the other house belonging to Russell & Co., a 
chimney was thrown down, and one of the joists drawn from 
its socket and forced through the ceiling. About fifteen yards 
of a high brick wall around Mr. Nye's house was overthrown, 
and a large Chinese warehouse in the city almost entirely de- 
stroyed. The dogs (of which there is no scarcity in Shanghai) 
howled dismally while the motion lasted. The direction of 
the wave was from north-east to south-west, and the extent of 
its motion was, I should jndge, about two feet. Shanghai is 
subject to slight shocks, but this was the most severe which 
had been felt for several years. The nearest volcanoes are in 



EFFECTS OF THE EARTHQUAKE. 341 

the Japanese island of Kiusiu, about six hundred miles dis- 
tant. 

About midnight two additional shocks were felt, but they 
were much lighter than the first. On retiring to rest, we 
found that a number of articles in the rooms had been thrown 
upon the floor. In the morning I walked up to the northern 
part of the settlement, where the shock appeared to have been 
much more violent than at the southern end. In Mr. Nye's 
godotun (warehouse) the heavy bales of goods were hurled from 
their places. Several chimneys were sprung and walls cracked, 
but the nature of the soil on which Shanghai stands — an 
elastic, clayey loam, two hundred feet in depth — saved the 
place from greater injury. In company with some friends I 
went to the bowling-alley, the walls of which had previously 
showed a disposition to give way, and were supported on one 
side by props. After playing mi hour or two, we noticed that 
the southern wall had suddenly sunk outwards more than six 
inches, and was cracked from top to bottom. There had been, 
in fact, another smart shock at that very time, and we had not 
perceived it. The props alone prevented the whole building 
from coming down upon our heads. 

The Chinese servants stated in the morning that hairs were 
always found in the earth after an earthquake, and brought up 
two or three gray horse-hairs — or what appeared to be such — • 
which they professed to have found in the yard. Several of the 
gentlemen immediately went down and commenced searching, 
and to their astonishment found numbers of gray filaments from 
four to ten inches long. They projected two or three inches 
from the soil, and were most abundant among the grass. They 
were strong, like a coarse hempen fibre, and were readily drawn 



342 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

out without breaking. After a careful examination with a 
powerful magnifying glass, it was found that they had not the 
tubular structure of hair, but what they were and whence they 
came, was a mysiicry. Some of the profane summarily ac- 
counted for them by declaring that the shock of the earthquake 
caused the earth's hair to stand on end, from fright. They 
were picked up in nearly all the gardens in town. The Chinese 
say they are only found for three days after a shock, which, so 
far as I could learn, also proved correct. 

Another circumstance attending the earthquake, was the 
shower of fine dust, which fell for two or three days afterwards. 
The same thing was noticed after the earthquake of 1846, 
which was less violent. The wind was from the north-west, 
and the sand, which some suppose to come from the great 
Desert of Kobi, in the interior of China, was so fine as to be 
impalpable, yet filled the air to such an extent that the sun 
was covered with a yellow film, and the view obscured as by a 
thick haze. The Chinese reported that a town about thirty 
miles distant had been entirely swallowed up, and that a tract 
of land a mile square had sunk, and had been replaced by a 
deep lake. We decided at once to pay a visit to the spot, but 
on inquiry found so many contradictory stories regarding it, 
that it was quite impossible to discover where the town was. 
There were three or four slight shocks afterwards at intervals 
of two or three days. 

On the 9th of April, the Taou-tai of Shanghai paid an 
official visit to Col. Marshall, and to the frigate Susquehanna. 
He had given notice of his intention two days before, and 
came in state, attended by four mandarins, and with a long 
retinue of scarecrow followers. A little in advance of their 



CHINESE VISITING CARDS. 343 

arrival, the cards of the dignitaries were sent to the Commis- 
sioner. They were long slips of crimson paper, inscribed with 
rows of glaring hieroglyphics, and enclosed in crimson envelopes. 
The Taou-tai's ran thus : " Woo-keen-chang, of the Ta-Tsing 
Empire, hy Imperial appointment Salt Commissioner, Inten- 
dant of the Circuit of the Prefectures of Soo-Chow, Soong- 
Keang and Tae-Tsuag, in the province of Keang-nan, holding 
the rank of Judge, promoted five degrees, &c., presents his 
compliments." One of the others was still more remarkable : 
" Lan-wei-wan, of the Ta-Tsing Empire, Haefung of the Pre- 
fecture of Shanghai, in the province of Keang-soo, and expec- 
tant of the ofiice of Prefect, knocks his head and presents 
compliments." How titles would multiply in America, if all 
the " expectants" of office adopted this plan ! We should be 
overrun with such characters as — Hon. Elijah Pogram, Ex- 
pectant Minister to Russia; Jedediah Peabody, Expectant 
Collector of Sag-Harbor — and so to the end of the chapter. 

The Taou-tai was received with all due distinction, and his 
interview with the Commissioner lasted about an hour. He 
was a small man, near fifty years of age (his mustache denot- 
ing a grandfather) ; his complexion was a pale, bloodless yellow 
his eyes lively and piercing, and his rather contracted features 
expressed a keen, shrewd and unscrupulous character. He was 
formerly a hong merchant of Canton, and is still best known to 
foreigners by his old name of Sam-qua. He"spoke the " pigeon 
English," or commercial jargon, with tolerable fluency, though 
the conversation was partly carried on in Chinese, by Dr. Par- 
ker. He was dressed in robes of a rich, stiff silk, embroidered 
with the insignia of his office, and wore a cap with the single 
peacock's feather and opaque red button of a mandarin of the 



344 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

third cTass. In his suite was the Colonel of the regular troops 
stationed at Shanghai — a tall, dignified old mandarin, who con- 
ducted himself with a grave and courteous dignity, beside which 
the Taou-tai, with his fidgety and undecided manners, showed to 
disadvantage. On entering the room where the Commissioner 
received them, they all performed the Ko-iow^ or national 
salutation, by clasping their hands in front^of their breasts, and 
bowing profoundly with a shaky motion, like those porcelain 
mandarins with which we are all familiar. They were regaled 
with tea, champagne and port, and took wine with great gravity, 
rising and bowing profoundly when they drank. After leaving 
the Commissioner they went on board the Susquehanna, where 
Capt. Buchanan received them with a salute of nine guns. 
They all expressed the greatest astonishment and admiration 
at the size and strength of the vessel. 

During the visit. Col. Marshall expressed a wish to witness 
a review of the Chinese garrison of Shanghai, and the Taou- 
tai at one promised to make a public display of the troops, in 
order to exhibit his military resources to the foreign commu- 
nity. Accordingly, as we were entering the city the next after- 
noon, a frightful clamor of gongs announced the approach of 
some unusual spectacle, and we soon became aware that the 
Taou-tai was fulfilling his promise. First came half-a-dozen old 
six-pounders, mounted on clumsy carriages, which made a 
frightful clatter as they rolled over the rough pavement. 
They were followed by porters bearing chests of ammunition, 
slung from bamboo poles ; then a company of soldiers in dark 
blue dresses, with a circular coat-of-arms on the breast and 
back, armed with long spears ; another company, with ginjalls, 
a long, heavy stock, mounted on a tripod when it is fired, and 



A CHINESE MILITARY DISPLAY. 345 

carrying a ball about the size of a grape-sbot; afterwards, 
more spearmen, alternating with companies of matchlocks, 
and followed by more lumbering six-pounders, chests of am- 
munition, gongs, yellow banners, covered with hieroglyphics, 
and other curious and fantastic objects — the procession rushing 
along without order or organization, shouting and laughing, or 
brandishing their arms in the most uncouth and barbaric style. 
Such a display never was witnessed in Shanghai before. There 
were about four hundred regular soldiers, some of whom were 
exceedingly well-formed, lusty men, and clothed in an appro- 
priate costume — a short tunic girdled around the waist, full 
trowsers gathered at the* knees, and tight leggings — but the 
greater portion were evidently porters and peasants, hired for 
the ocasion, to swell the ranks of the soldiery, and produce an 
impression of the Imperial power. 

There were in the procession some very curious weapons, 
which I do not suppose any other army in the world can ex- 
hibit. In addition to pikes for sticking the enemy, poles for 
punching them, clubs for beating them, and flails for threshing 
their heads, I saw some wooden beams about five feet long 
with handles at each end, the use of which is — to push them 
out of the way ! When part of the procession was retarded 
at any point, the companies behind them made up the loss, by 
rushing down the street at full speed, leaping in the air as they 
went, charging with their lances, swinging their flails and 
shaking their clubs, with cries which were meant to be terrific, 
but which were ludicrous in the extreme. Among the officers, 
who rode on shaggy native ponies, we recognized the venerable 
Colonel, who bowed to us with a touch of pride in passing. 
Last of all, preceded by yellow banners and a deafening tem- 
15* 



346 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

pest of ^ongs, came tlie Taou-tai himself, in his green sedan 
chair, followed by the Grovernment executioners, in red dresses 
and high conical caps, decorated with the long tail-feathers of 
the pheasant. The grave and self-satisfied air of the high 
official was most amusing. The whole thing was like a Chinese 
travesty of Don Quixote. After parading through the prin- 
cipal streets of the foreign settlement, the procession returned 
to the city, which it entered "by the western gate. 

A few days afterwards, Col. Marshall returned the visit of 
the Taou-tai, at his official residence within the city. He was 
accompanied by Dr. Parker, Secretary of Legation, and Mr. 
Cunningham, Vice-Consul. The party set out in sedan chairs, 
crimson cards having been sent in advance, according to Chinese 
custom. Along the way — a distance of a mile or more — the 
Taou-tai had stationed attendants with gongs, which were dire- 
fully beaten, as we passed. It was a raw, rainy day, and the 
streets had more than their usual quantity of mud and filth. 
After entering the city gate, I, who was last in the procession, 
was rather startled at finding my chair suddenly dropped in the 
mud. Looking out, I found the bearers deliberately bargaining 
at a stall for new straw-sandals, which they purchased and put 
on their feet leisurely enough, before they picked me up again. 
On reaching the Taou-tai's residence, the salute of three guns 
had been fired, and the discordant noises of a dozen dire instru- 
ments were dying away. I was carried through a wooden por- 
tal of a dark-red color, across a paved court-yard, and finally 
deposited in a portico or verandah, where the Taou-tai had just 
formally received the Commissioner and the rest of his suite. 
The attendants made a loud announcement of some kind as I 



VISIT TO THE TAOU-TAI. 347 

passed the portal, wliicli was repeated from one to the other, 
till it reached the Taoii-tai at the same time with myself. 

We were conducted through a plain but spacious hall, open 
on two sides to the air, across a small inner court, and into 
another hall, or audience-room, partially closed by movable 
screens. It was gaudily furnished, but without an extravagant 
show of wealth. The predominant color was dark-red, and 
the walls were relieved with painted tablets of light-blue or 
green, containing loug inscriptions. The floor was covered 
with a red felt cloth, and straight-backed chairs of camphor- 
wood were placed around small tables of the same material, 
containing boxes of sweetmeats. The Commissioner was con- 
ducted to a raised divan in the centre, covered with red cloth, 
upon which he and the Taou-tai seated themselves, with refresh- 
ments between them. The latter was more at his ease than on 
the former occasion, and did the honors of his mansion with 
more grace than I had anticipated. The conversation was 
auimated, and principally of a general nature, though he made 
occasional reference to the rebellion. After his manifestoes 
concerning the success of the Imperialists, I did not consider 
his expressions on the subject as worthy of much attention, 
and the commencement of the material part of the entertain- 
ment soon gave me a more interesting field of observation. 

Cups of birds-nest soup were presented to us, together with 
porcelain spoons and chop-sticks of ivory and silver. This 
curious dish fully justifies the taste of the Chinese ; it is exceed- 
ingly delicate and nutritious. The Chinese wine, served warm, 
in square silver cups, was also quite palatable, and there was 
i preparation of almonds, sugar, and rice fiour, boiled into a 
paste, to which we all lid full justice. It was, however, alight 



348 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

collatiSn rather than a regular meal, and the greater part con- 
sisted of dried and candied fruits, such as oranges, dates, citrons 
and various kinds of nuts. At the conclusion segars were 
ojffered to us, while the Taou-tai took his bamboo pipe. There 
was a host of attendants, all prompt, silent, and respectful. 
Sam-qua was too long a resident of Canton, not to have taken 
some hints from the habits of the foreign merchants there. 

At our departure, he accompanied the Commissioner to the 
outer court. Three guns were fired off as the chair of the lat- 
ter passed through the portal ; the musicians, stationed in a 
gallery on the side of the court, struck up a horrible discord, 
which made the gongs that sounded along our homeward 
march melodious by contrast. The curious natives thronged 
the streets, to stare at us, and it was a relief when we reached 
the foreign suburb of Shanghai. 



CHAPTEE XXVIII. 

INCIDENTS OF LIFE IN SHANGHAI. 

Spring at Shanghai— Appearance of the Country— Crops— National Conveyance of 
China— Houses of the Lower Classes— Sail on the Eiver— The Pagoda— Village 
Market — Sweetmeats and Children — Showers of Cash — Chinese Horticultural Exhi- 
bition — The Lan-ichei — Chinese Love of Monstrosity — Moral Depravity of the Eace 
— Landscape Gardening — A Soldier and his Drill— The Cangue — Visit of the Hermes 
to Nanking— The Eebels— Their Christianity — Condition of the City— Arrival of the 
U. 8. Steam-Frigate ifi.ss2SSJp/3i— Commodore Perry— Col. Marshall's Chinese 
Dinner — Mr. Eobert Fortune. 

Spring, at Shangliai, comes slowly. When we arrived, at the 
close of March, the trees were budding into leaf, but did not 
attain their full foliage before the middle of May. The wea- 
ther during April was dull and showery, with a lower temper- 
ature than would be looked for elsewhere in the same latitude. 
There was scarcely an evening when fire was not necessary to 
our comfort. Until all the summer crops had been planted, 
and for a week or two afterwards, there was little satisfaction 
in going into the country, where the vernal odors of grass 
and flowers were wholly lost in the intolerable stench arising 
from pits of manure. But towards the end of April, when the 
rumors of war became less frequent, when the shocks of earth- 



359 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

quakes liad subsided, and tte sun made his appearance fronr 
time to time, I took many afternoon strolls in various direc- 
tions, and became familiar "with the country life of the 
Chinese. 

There is nothing striking or picturesque in the scenery of 
this part of China. Tlie country is a dead level, watered with 
sluggish creeks, and intersected with ditches and canals. It is 
studded far and near with shapeless mounds of earth erected 
over obsolete natives; sparingly dotted with clumps of dark 
cedar-trees or plantations of the inestimable bamboo, and enli- 
vened by occasional hamlets, which, shaded with bushy willows, 
have a pleasant, rural aspect when seen from a distance, but 
are mostly disgusting when you draw near. The soil is a very 
rich clayey loam, and yields abundant crops of rice, wheat, 
sweet potatoes, beets, beans, pea-nuts, and the other staples of 
Chinese food. Much of it must have been originally marsh 
land, which has been drained by canals and the gradual rise 
of the coast, from the deposits of the Yang-tse-Kiang. The 
paths from village to village are on narrow dykes, winding be- 
tween the fields, and crossing the ditches by bridges formed of 
single large slabs of granite, which are brought down from the 
hills. Occasionally you see a highway, six or eight feet broad, 
paved with blocks of stone, laid transversely, but I doubt 
whether a carriage could go in any direction further than two 
or three miles from the city. I sometimes met a Chinaman 
of the better class mounted on a sturdy little pony, and once 
encountered a traveller from Soo-Chow in the national con- 
veyance of China — the wheelbarrow ! " He was seated side- 
ways, with his legs dangling below, while his baggage, placed 
on the opposite side, served to trim the vehicle. It was a one- 



HOUSES OF THE LOWER CLASSES. 351 

horse wheelbarrow, propelled by a stout coolie, with a strap 
over his shoulders, and made a doleful creaking as it passed. 
The persons whom I met showed every sign of civility and re- 
spect, and had time permitted, I might have extended my strolls 
to a distance of thirty or forty miles, without meeting any hin- 
drance. In the villages I frequently entered the houses of the 
people, to which they made no objection, but seemed rather 
gratified at the distinction. The domestic arrangements were 
very simple ; the dwellings were all of one story, rarely having 
more than two rooms, and containing only the rudest appliances 
of a household. The beds were usually of matting, with bam- 
boo pillows, but the poorer natives slept upon coarse mats laid 
upon the earth, with wooden stools under their heads. It 
is not advisable to be too curious, or to spend much time in 
inspecting Chinese dwellings, on account of their abundant 
vitality. For the same reason, many features of domestic life 
among the lower classes must be passed over in silence. 

We made an excursion one morning to the pagoda, which 
stands on the left bank of the Whang-po Ptiver, about eight 
miles above the city. The wind was fair, and Mr. Cunning- 
ham's fleet clipper-yacht soon carried us past the thousand 
junks and notched brick walls of Shanghai. It was in the be- 
ginning of May, and the shores, low and greenly wooded, bore 
Bome resemblance to those of the Delaware, below Philadel- 
phia. We passed several large junks, which had come through 
from the Bay of Hang-Chow, by a canal which leads from the 
old city of Chapoo to the Whang-po Piiver. After a run of 
an hour and half, we moored the yacht at the mouth of a small 
creek, and walked to the pagoda, which was a quarter of a 
mile distant. It is built of pale red sandstone, and with its 



352 rspiA. CHTSA. A^-D jata^. 

ten sttiies (iiniinishiTig in beantif al proportion, eadi orer- 
Irang bj at pointed, up-tumed roo^ it is tralj a gracefal ob- 
ject The pagodas are the only svmmetrical things in 
Cluiieae ardiheeture, and I think it donbtfol whether the idea 
of them vas not first borrowed £rom India. All of those which 
I saw, or which traTellers generally see in China, are compa- 
latirel J modem. 

There was a little Tillage scattered about the foot of the 
structore, and the eoimtry people were holding a market there. 
The siq>plj of T^etables, swee^neats, and cheap, coarse articles 
of dress was Teiy large : the jugglers were present in strong 
feree, and the be^ars were OTer-zealoGs in their attendanc-e. 
I unased mjaeli with buying many yarieties of nondescript 
paatij and eonle^a, at such cheap rates, that it was difficult to 
paj little enou^ I then distributed my purchases among the 
Aildrm, the larger of whom took them with ayidity, while 
the younger and more shy held back from the forei^ barba- 
rian, until ^leooraged by their pleased parents. To escape 
firom the popularity whidi followed, we climbed to the summit 
of the pagoda, whraiee we beheld a circular panorama, de- 
soibed by a radius of twenty-fiye miles. It was beautiful 
only from its extent, and its monotony of green, through which 
wamdered a few brown yeins of riyers^ I soon turned to con- 
template the more animated manscape at my feet. Seeing a 
oowd of beggars standing together in dejected attitudes. I 
cast a handful of cash into the air, in such wise that the coins 
would fell plump among them, and then dropped behind the 
parapet of the pagoda. There was a metallic rattle on the 
stones, followed by a cry of amaaement, for nothing was yisi- 
Ue, of eoarae, and they had not seen us ascend the pagoda. 



A CHINESE FLOEAi EXHIBITION. 353 

Several other miraculons showers followed, but a desire to see 
the beggars scramble, betrayed ns at last We were greet€<i 
with loud cries, and arms thrown greedily aloft, beckoning 
for more. I cast among them npwards of twenty handfols, and 
by thus expending the munificent sum of forty cents, enjoyed 
the feelings of a monarch, who scatters golden largesse. 

One day I attended a native horticultural exhibition, 
which was held in an old temple, within the walls. The open 
courts of the building were filled with rows of flowering 
plants, in earthen pots and vases, which were also arranged in 
circles around some weak foxmtaiDs in the centre. There 
were some fine specimens of the mau-ian, or peony, white, pint, 
and crimson, and with an odor very gimilar to that of the rose; 
but the most admired flower seemed to be the laiir^ohei, a bul- 
bous water-plant, with a blossom resembling that of the orchids 
in form, yet of a dirty yellowish-green hue. The great aim 
of the Chinese florist is to produce something as much unlike 
nature as possible, and thus this blossom, which, for aught I 
know, may be pure white, or yellow, in its native state, is 
changed into a sickly, mongrel color, as if it were ajSicted 
with a vegetable jaundice, or leprosy. There was a crowd of 
«ithusiastic admirers around each of the ugliest spedmens, and 
I was told that one plant, which was absolutely loathsome and 
repulsive in its appearance, was valuei at three hundred 
dollars. The only taste which the Chinese exhibit to any 
degree, is a love of the monstrous. That sentiment of harmo- 
ny, which throbbed like a musical rhythm through the life of 
the Greeks, never looked out of their oblique eyes. Their 
music is a dreadful discord; their language is composed of na- 
Bals and consonants; they admire whatever is distorted or im- 



354 IN-T)IA, CHINA, AND JAPAX. 

natural *aiid the wider its divergeDce from its original beauty 
or symmetry, the greater is their delight. 

This mental idiosyncrasy includes a moral one, of similar 
character. /it is my deliberate opinion that the Chinese are, 
morally, the most debased people on the face of the earth. 
Forms of vice which in other countries are barely named, are 
in China so common, that they excite no comment among the 
natives. They constitute the surface-leyel, and below them 
there are deeps on deeps of depravity so shocking and horrible, 
that their character cannot even be hinted. There are some 
dark shadows in human nature, which we naturally shrink 
from penetrating, and I made no attempt to collect informa- 
tion of this kind; but there was enough in the things which I 
could not avoid seeing and hearing — which are brought almost 
daily to the notice of every foreign resident — to inspire me 
with a powerful aversion to the Chinese race. Their touch is 
pollution, and, harsh as the opinion may seem, justice to our 
own race demands that they should not be allowed to settle 
on our soiL / Science may have lost something, but mankind 
has gained, by the exclusive policy which has governed China 
during the past centuries. 

I soon grew tired of the jaundiced lan-wJieis, and diverted 
myself with examining a labyrinthine garden in the rear of the 
temple. It was a piece of rock-work, of the most absurd and 
grotesque character. The fragments of gray, disintegrated 
limestone were plastered and riveted together in the form of 
precipices and mountain-peaks, one of which was at least twenty 
feet high, with a cork-screw path encirling it many times be- 
fore it allowed the adventurous traveller to mount the cap- 
stone. In the crevices of the rocks were little basins of soil. 



A SOLDIER AND HIS DRILL. 355 

in which magnolias and mau-ians were growing, while, far 
down in the depths of the valleys you saw several green, slimy 
lakes, from three to five feet in length. After having suffi- 
ciently enjoyed this sublime view, I discovered a means of 
exit through a low, arched grotto into the street, and did not 
scruple to make use of it. 

Continuing my walk at random, I came to a very old, di- 
lapidated temple, in the southern part of the city. The jolly 
fat idols had been removed, and the place was occupied as a 
barrack by some of the Taou-tai's troops. Several indolent 
soldiers were hanging about a tank of water in the centre of the 
court-yard, and the thought of seeing a Chinese military drill 
came into my mind. I offered the least lazy and most good- 
humored of the party fifty cash to perform his exercise, and 
found him quite willing to comply. He soon appeared with a 
wooden weapon about five feet long and one foot wide, with a 
handle like that of a fiddle-bow, running parallel to its length, 
and fastened at each end. This he brandished in the air, first 
on one side, then on the other, sometimes swinging it like an 
axe, sometimes drawing it downwards with both hands like a 
comb, and occasionally thrusting one end of it behind him, as 
if he was warding off an attack in the rear. The attitudes 
were very amusing, and each imaginary blow was accompanied 
with a howl of defiance, and an expression of face which was 
meant to be terrific. The performance lasted about half an 
hour, and I considered that the cash were well earned. 

On my return home, I saw near the city gate a man suf- 
fering the punishment of the cangue. This is a heavy wooden 
wheel, which is fastened around the criminal's neck, and pro- 
jects outwards so far that he cannot touch his head with his 



350 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

hands. He therefore nms the risk of starration, unless he has 
fc-iends or relations, who are able and willing to feed him. All 
the inconveniences resulting from this mode of punishment soon 
become tortures, and when the culprit is sentenced to undergo 
it for two or three months, his plight would be insupportable 
to any but a Chinaman. The man in question had a wretched, 
haggard look, but I saw no one who seemed to commiserate 
him in the least. 

On the 2od of April, the British war-steamer Hermes left 
for Nanking, with Sir George Bonham on board. As the 
Hermes drew four or five feet less water than the Susquehan- 
7m, it was supposed that she would be able to proceed up the 
Yang-tse-Kiang. Sir George's object was to communicate 
with the rebels, and inform them of the entire neutrality of 
the foreign powers. The Taou-tai of Shanghai had circulated 
reports throughout the interior, that all the foreign war- 
steamers were in league with him, and were to be dispatched 
to Nanking. The Hermes returned on the 5th of May, having 
been absent twelve days. She was four days in reaching 
jSTanking, having twice grounded in the river. She passed the 
outposts of the rebel army near Chin-Kiang-foo, where she was 
fired upon, but very slightly damaged. Having reached the 
anchorage at Nanking, the officers succeeded in communicating 
with the rebel chiefs, by whom they were well received. The 
latter stated that they were not hostile to foreigners, and had 
never intended to attack Shanghai. They professed to be 
Christians, and declared that their leader, Tae-ping, was a 
younger brother of Jesus Christ. From various indications, 
however, it was supposed that their Christianity, such as it was, 
was founded on the belief that, through its supernatural influ- 



THE HERMES AT NANKING. 357 

ence, they would obtain the same divine favor to vrhich they 
ascribed the success of the English in the late Chinese war. 

Mr. Meadows sent to the American Embassy copies of 
books which were obtained from the rebels. Among them 
was Grutzlaff's translation of the book of Genesis. They also 
had the Ten Commandments, which they promulgated as a 
divine law, changing the seventh so as to- read thus : " Thon 
shalt not commit adultery, nor smoke opium." The latter of- 
fence is punished with death. The chief Tae-ping (Universal 
Peace,) was not seen by Sir George Bonham, nor any of his 
suite. He professed to be divinely inspired, receiving his com- 
munications direct from the Almighty. Nanking was almost 
wholly deserted by its former inhabitants, and its streets pre- 
sented a pitiable spectacle. The rebels went about dressed in 
gorgeous silks, which they had taken from the despoiled shops 
of the merchants; sycee silver was abundant, and the most 
extravagant prices were paid for umbrellas, buttons, pistols, 
old clothes, and other articles on board the Hermes. Many of 
the sailors made large sums in thus disposing of their super- 
tuous garments. A splendid robe of the most costly furs was 
^iven in exchange for a worn-out midshipman's uniform. 
Hundreds of the rebels visited the Hermes, while she lay be- 
i'ore the city, and some of her of&cers went ashore, and even 
passed a night among the people, without the least molesta- 
tion. 

The steamer Bornbay arrived on the 3d of May, bringing 
the long-delayed European and American mails, together with 
the intelligence that the U. S. steam-frigate Mississippi^ the 
flag-ship of the Japan Expedition, had left Hong Kong for 
Early on the following morning, we saw from the 



358 . INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

house-top, througli a glass, her broad pennant at the mouth of 
the Woosung River. Although drawing more than twenty 
feet, she succeeded in crossing the bar without delay, and came 
up to the city, where she dropped anchor beside the Susque- 
hanna. On the 9th of May, Commodore Perry transferred his 
pennant to the latter vessel, with the usual ceremonies of firing 
salutes and manning the yards — a spectacle which drew the 
greater part of Shanghai to the hund. The Commodore be- 
came a guest at the American Consulate for the remainder of 
his stay, and his presence and that of the Mississippi's officers, 
gave a fresh impetus to the social activity of the foreign popu- 
lation. Thenceforth there were balls, dinners, and other en- 
tertainments, in great abundance. 

Among these festivities, the most notable was a Chinese 
dinner which Col. Marshall gave at the Consulate. The build- 
ing was in a blaze of lanterns and flowers. An arched ave- 
nue of colored lights led from the gate to the door, where the 
visitor ascended between a double row of fragrant white and 
crimson mau-tans to the first story. Here, the quaint silk 
lanterns were redoubled; curious baskets and urns of grass 
and shells, filled with flowers, were suspended from the ceiling, 
and the dining-room, handsomely draped with flags, contained 
a veritable bower or arbor of greenery enshrining the Ameri- 
can eagle. The dinner was prepared with great care, not only 
the Taou-tai's silver cups and chopsticks, but even his cook 
having been borrowed for the occasion. The dishes were 
numerous and palatable, but hardly substantial enough for a 
civilized taste. They were mostly soups, and some of them 
were distinguished by very peculiar flavors, which I found 
difficult to analyze. The choicest dishes were bird's-nest soup, 



ROBERT FORTUNE. 359 

shark's fins, and a dark, stringy substance, which the Taou-tai 
said he had procured from Pekin, at great expense. The din- 
ner was followed by a grand ball, and a supper in European 
style. 

There were rumors of trouble at Ningpo, and the French 
steamer Cassini made a trip to that city. Mr. Robert For- 
tune, author of "Wanderings in China," and "A Journey to 
the Bohea Mountains," who had arrived in Shanghai a short 
time previous, also left for Ningpo, whence he proposed making 
new journeys into the interior. Mr. Fortune is a plain, unas- 
suming man, and an enthusiastic botanist, and by his daring 
excursions into the tea districts, has added greatly to our 
knowledge of the interior of China. Mr. Forbes, who went to 
Ningpo in the Cassini, returned about the 10th of May in a 
Chinese junk, by way of Chapoo. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE U. S. EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 

State of Things at Shanghai— The Sloop-of-War Plymouth— Preparations for Depart- 
ure—Entering the Naval Service— Its Kegulations— Procuring a Uniform— The 
Master's-Mates— Establishing a Mess— Departure for Japan— A Gale— Shipwrecks- 
Standing out to Sea— Arrival at the Great Loo-Choo Island— A Missionary — Beauty 
of the Harbor of Napa — The Native Authorities — Going Ashore — Jumping over a 
Coral Eeef— Landing— The Town of Napa-Kiang— Spies— Dr. Bettelheim's Kesi- 
dence. 

Immediately after the transfer of Commodore Perry's broad 
pennant to tlie Susquehanna.^ active preparations were made 
for tlie departure of the squadron on its mission to Japan. 
Since the return of the Hermes from Nanking, there was very 
little apprehension of danger, either among the Chinese or the 
foreign residents. The former had very generally returned to 
their homes and opened their shops, in accordance with the 
Taou-tai's commands. The American commercial houses, 
nevertheless, addressed a letter to Col. Marshall, asking that 
they should not be left entirely defenceless — on account of 
which application, Commodore Perry detached the sloop-of-wai 
Plymouth from the squadron for a few weeks longer. Col. 
Marshall, who Lad as jc-t not baen able to find a proper Chinese 



ENTEHING T3E NAVAL SERVICE. 361 

official to receive his letters of credence, finally made applica- 
tion to tlie Court at Pekiu. He desired to proceed to the 
mouth of the Pai-ho River, in the Yellow Sea, and there await 
his answer, but a council of sailing-masters, called together by 
the Commodore, reported, after a long consultation, that it 
would be impossible to get within sight of the shore in a 
vessel drawing so much water as the Plymouth. Tuesday, 
the 17th of May, was appointed for the departure of the Sus- 
quehanna and Mississippi, the sloop-of-war Saratoga having 
already sailed from Macao for an unknown rendezvous. 

I had extended my travels to China with a strong hope of 
being able to accompany the Expedition to Japan. On the 
arrival of Commodore Perry, I learned that very strict orders 
had been issued by the Navy Department against the admis- 
sion on board of any of the vessels, of any person not attached 
to the service and subject to its regulations. Capt. Buchanan, 
who had no clerk, and was justly entitled to one, very kindly 
proposed that I should go in that capacity ; but as there were 
two vacancies in the rank of master's-mate, which the Commo- 
dore had power to fill, and as my willingness to enter the 
service temporarily, removed the only objection he had urged, 
I decided to take the latter chance. I therefore signed an 
article of allegiance, and became an officer of very moderate 
rank, with unlimited respect for my superiors, and the reverse 
for my inferiors. This enlistment, which I most gladly and 
readily made, rendered me subject to all the regulations of the 
Navy Department; especially to that order promulgated for 
the benefit of the officers of the Expedition, which obliged 
them to give up to the Department every joui-nal, note, sketch, 
or observation of any kind made during the cruise. I there- 
16 



362 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

fore cl(jsed my old journal, and commenced a new one from tlie 
day I entered — which latter is now in possession of the Navy 
Department, according to agreement. Nearly all the officers, 
on the contrary, had ceased keeping journals from the day the 
order was issued. I should have had some hesitation in sub- 
mitting myself to that almost absolute power, which is the life 
of the Naval Service, had I not already known so well the 
officers of the Susquehanna. My confidence was not misplaced, 
for, from the Commodore down, with but a single exception, I 
received nothing from them but kindness and courtesy, during 
my connection with the service. 

I had some dfficulty in procuring the necessary uniforms. 
There were none but Chinese tailors in Shanghai, who work 
entirely from ready-made patterns. By foraging among the 
officers I procured a sufficient number of anchor buttons, and 
a crest for my cap ; in the shop of a French merchant I found 
some cloth of the proper color ; I borrowed one coat for the 
sleeves, another for the body, and another for the arrangement 
of buttons ; and by keeping a watchful eye upon the tailor, 
finally succeeded in obtaining both undress and full-dress uni- 
forms, which came within two buttons of being correct. 
Having assumed the blue, and buttoned my coat up to the 
throat in order to display the eighteen gilded eagles and anchors 
which decorated its front, I walked down the bund to try its 
effect. I endeavored to appear careless and self-possessed, but 
the first man-of-war'sman who passed betrayed me. I know 
that I actually blushed when he lifted his tarpaulin, and T 
doubt to this day whether I returned his salute. A little 
further, a jolly, red-headed tar, with a large cargo of samshoo 
aboard, came up and shook my hand heartily, promising me an 



ESTABLISHING A MESS. 363 

oyster-supper in New York, after our return. I felt more at 
home in the service after such a characteristic welcome, and 
was not afterwards embarrassed by my buttons. 

The places of acting master's-mates (the rank of warranted 
master's-mates being now obsolete) had been purposely left 
vacant, in order that it might be filled by artists and natu- 
ralists, who would thus belong to the service and be under the 
control of its officers. The rank and uniform is that of a 
passed midshipman, but the pay — twenty-five dollars a month — 
is considerably less than half of what the latter receives. 
On the East India station it just about suffices for the pay- 
ment of the mess-bill. There were three master's-mates on 
board the Mississvppi — Mr. Heine, the artist ; Mr. Draper, 
who had charge of the telegraph apparatus ; and Mr. Brown, 
daguerreotypist. As they were specially subject to the Com- 
modore's orders, they were transferred to the Susquehanna, and 
I joined them in forming a separate mess, to which was added 
Mr. Portman, the Commodore's interpreter and clerk. The 
vessel was so crowded, that we had some trouble in finding 
sufficient room for our mess-table and stores, but were finally 
placed upon the orlop deck, beside the main hatch, and over 
the powder magazine. My cot was slung in the same place at 
night, where it was brought by a sturdy main-topman, who 
had it in his particular charge. A cadaverous Chinaman, 
A-fok by name, was shipped as our steward, and an incorrigible 
black deck-hand appropriated to us as cook. We were thus 
provided with all the requisites of a mess, and although there 
was some grumbling from time to time, on account of the heat 
and darkness of the orlop deck, the incompetency of the 
steward, or the villainy of the cook, I found my situation 



864 



quite ses comfortable as I anticipated, and never regretted 
having embraced it. 

A.t last the day of our departure, the 17th of May, arrived. 
It was a warm, calm, sunny day, and as the black volumes 
began to rise from the smoke-stacks of the two steam-frigates, 
the whole foreign population of Shanghai flocked down to the 
bund. Mr. Forbes and Mr. Cunningham came on board for 
a pleasure trip to the Saddle Islands, whence they intended re- 
turning in a large junk which had been sent down with a final 
instalment of coal. About three o'clock the cornet was hauled 
down, the anchor hove, and we slowly threaded our way through 
the shipping, the band, stationed on the hurricane deck, play- 
ing in answer to the cheers and shouts which followed us. It 
was an exciting moment, for we were now leaving the frontiers 
of commerce and national intercourse, and our next port would 
be in one of those strange, exclusive realms which we hoped 
to open to the world. The cannon and the music ceased ; the 
shouts became faint and died away altogether ; the houses of 
Shanghai gradually passed out of sight, and before sunset we 
came to anchor in the Yang-tse-Kiang, off Woosung. 

The next day we proceeded down the river. There was a 
gale of mingled wind and rain, and we ascertained that the 
store-ship Supply^ which had come from Hong Kong to join 
the squadron, was aground on the North Shoal. She was in 
imminent danger for a time, but was finally got off without 
damage. In the evening, the junk which had been laden with 
coal ran aground, and soon became a complete wreck. Her 
crew, consisting of twelve men, were with difficulty saved by 
the Mississippi's boats. The Susquehanna had a large boat 
in tow, belonging to Mr. Cunningham, and by some misman- 



PUTTING OUT TO SEA. 865 

agement of the native sailors, one side of it was stove in against 
the frigate's quarter. The wreck still held by the hawser, 
dragging after us, the sea breaking over the terrified Chinese, 
who pounded their foreheads against the piece of deck that re- 
mained, and implored to be taken off. This was done as soon 
as possible, and the drenched Celestials had no sooner touched 
our deck than they prostrated themselves, and thumped their 
heads vigorously at the feet of the officer. 

On account of the gale, and the dangerous navigation of 
the Archipelago of' Chusan, the squadron remained two days 
near the Saddle Islands. The weather then became clear, and 
Messrs. Forbes and Cunningham, with the shipwrecked China- 
men, having found a means of return to Shanghai, left us, and 
the squadron stood out to sea. Shortly after passing the islands 
a streak of dazzling emerald appeared on the horizon, herald- 
ing our release from the treacherous waters of the Yang-tse- 
Kiang. The brown, muddy tint gradually passed off the hem- 
isphere of sea, like an eclipse from the face of the sun ; the 
vessels fell into line, the Susquehanna in advance, and the 
Mississippi, with the Supply in tow, following on our port 
quarter, and we were at last under way for the unknown ren- 
dezvous. The ship's course soon revealed to us what we had 
suspected — that the squadron would first proceed to the Groat 
Loo-Choo Island. 

With calm weather, we sailed three or four days in a south- 
east direction, and on the morning of the 26th saw some scat- 
tered, uninhabitable islands belonging to the Loo-Choo group. 
The day was clouded, with frequent thunder-showers ; but we 
succeeded in making the Great Loo-Choo early in the after- 
noon, and with the assistance of Capt. Beechey's chart, felt our 



366 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

way into the harbor of Napa-KiaDg, at its south-western 
extremity, before dark. As the island first came in sight we 
descried a vessel off the weather-heam, which soon proved to 
he the Saratoga making her way up, punctual to her appoint- 
ment. The first landmark we made was Abbey Point, at the 
southern end of the harbor, by means of which, and a curious 
bluff called Capstan Kock, we were enabled to find the nar- 
row entrance leading between cora^ reefs to a safe anchorage 
within. The rain began to fall in torrents soon after our ar- 
rival, and the green, misty hills of the island were soon lost 
in the gloom of night. 

The same evening a native boat came off, bringing Dr. Bet- 
telheim, the sole European resident on the island. He was a 
missionary, who had been placed there by a society of Eng- 
lish naval officers, who, about seven years ago, formed the de- 
sign of Christianizing those parts, and selected the Dr. as their 
first instrument. It was eighteen months since any vessel had 
touched at Napa, and the missionary came on board in a state 
of great excitement. He was received by the Commodore, and 
after a stay of an hour, returned to the shore. 

"When the next morning dawned, bright and clear, I thought 
I had never seen a more lovely landscape than the island pre- 
sented. The bay was clasped by an amphitheatre of gently 
undulating hills, in some places terraced with waving rice-fields, 
in others covered with the greenest turf, or dotted with pictu- 
resque groups of trees. Bowers of the feathery bamboo — next 
to the palm, the most graceful of trees — almost concealed the 
dwellings which nestled together in the little dells opening into 
the bay, and which, with their stone enclosures and roofs of red 
tiles, hinted of a much higher civilization than we had expected. 



f 



THE BAY OF NAPA. 367 

The spurs of tlie liills wliicli ran down to the sea terminated in 
abrupt bluffs, in many placef^ so shattered and irregular as to 
resemble castles and abbeys in ruins. Beyond and to the right 
of Capstan E-ock, we saw the houses of the town of Napa, with 
the mouth of a little estuary, wherein some Chinese and Japa- 
nese junks were anchored ; while on the top of the highest hill, 
three or four miles inland, one of the bastions of the Regent's 
castle towered above the trees. The exquisite harmony in the 
forms of the scene, the dazzling green of the foliage, and the 
sweet, delicious air which came to us off the shore, charmed us 
like a glimpse of Paradise, after the monotonous levels and 
polluted atmosphere of China. 

There was no intercourse with the shore until after some 
negotiations had taken place between the Commodore and the 
high native dignitaries. The latter came off in rude. Hat-bot- 
tomed boats, propelled with paddles. They were exceedingly 
grave and dignified men, dressed in loose robes of grass cloth, 
and with curious yellow caps on their heads. Both their per- 
sons and their garments were scrupulously clean ; their long, 
silky beards were carefully combed out, the particular hairs 
lying parallel to each other, and every thing about them gave 
evidence of a care and neatness which I have never seen sur- 
passed. They were greatly astonished at the size and strength 
of the steamer, and when one of the field-pieces was fired three 
times as a salute, several of the attendants dropped upon the 
deck from the shock of their surprise. 

On the second day after our arrival, when the Commodore 
had come to a good understanding with the native authorities, 
he gave the officers of the squadron permission to go ashore. 
I jumped into the first boat which put off from the Susque- 



oGS INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

hanna, and wliich happened to bo manned by a dozen Chinese, 
from a number who had been shipped at Shanghai, as deck 
hands. The wind was blowing fresh, the sea was running 
briskly, and the Chinamen, who had probably never had an oar 
in their hands before, did little but catch crabs and confuse 
each other. We rapidly drifted away from the vessel and 
away from the shore, until, finally, one of the midshipmen 
ordered the coolies to cease, and with the assistance of two or 
three others stepped the mast and set the sheet, to run in on 
the wind. But he did not know the harbor, and in the twink- 
ling of an eye, the boat, which was running at the rate of seven 
or eight knots, dashed upon a coral reef. It was too late to 
wear off, so we bounced across it, the boat striking upon the 
tops of the growing coral trees, with every wave. Having 
reached deep water again, we found ourselves in a lake, or pool, 
completely encircled by the reef The only means of escape 
was to jump back again, which we finally accomplished with- 
out staving in the boart, and after a wearisome pull, reached 
the steamer, where we procured a fresh crew, and were finally 
put ashore at the foot of Capstan Rock. 

By this time several boats had landed, and groups of 
officers and men were strolling towards the town. Behind a 
hedge of the prickly pandanus, there was a cluster of bamboo 
huts, inhabited mostly by fishermen — lank, tawny, half-naked 
figures, who looked at us with a sort of listless curiosity. 
Their families were all concealed within the houses. As we 
advanced towards the town, I noticed that two or three indi- 
viduals, in robes of salmon-colored grass-cloth, hovered near 
each party, and, without seeming to watch closely, took note of 
every movement that was made. We soon entered the main 



THE TOWN OF NAPA. 369 

street, wliich was broad and well paved, and as neat as it could 
well be. It was enclosed by massive walls of coral and po- 
rous limestone, about ten feet bigh, over which hung a variety 
of flowering shrubs and the branches of glossy tropical trees, 
growing in the gardens behind them. The dwellings were 
within these enclosures, and if we saw, by chance, a gate un- 
locked, and ventured to enter, we invariably found the place 
vacant and deserted. The salmon-colored gentlemen did their 
duty well. We succeeded in getting a very accurate idea of 
the situation of the town, its size, the character of its architec- 
ture, and the outward appliances of its social life; but the 
inhabitants, except a few men and boys who lingered here and 
there in the streets, had totally disappeared. 

On my return to the vessel, I called at the residence of 
Dr. Bettelheim, which was a very neat cottage furnished him 
by the authorities of Loo-Choo, on a slope behind Capstan 
Rock. His family consisted of his wife, a mild, amiable English 
woman, and two children. The house wscs plain, but comforta- 
ble, and the view from the neighboring rock enchanting, yet I 
could not but doubt whether any thing can atone for such a 
complete removal from the world of civilized men. Even the 
zeal of the Missionary must flag, when it is exercised in vain. 
After seven years' labor, all the impression which Dr. Bettel- 
heim appears to have produced upon the natives is expressed 
in their request, touching from its very earnestness : " take thia 
man away from among us ! " 
16* 



H AFTER XXX 

VISIT TO THE CAPITAL OF LOO-CHOO. 

Visit of the Kegent— Tlie Island of Loo-Choo— An Exploration of the Interior— Setting 
Out— Entry into the Capital— Eeception— The Old Mandarin in for a Journey— His 
Eesignation— Programme of the Exploring Trip— Espionage in Loo-Choo— En- 
deavors to Escape it— Taking Families by Surprise— The Landscapes of Loo-Choo— 
The Cung-quds— batches and Counter-Watches- Commodore Perry's Visit to 
Shui— Disembarkation— The Order of March— Curiosity of the Natives— March to 
the Capital- Reception at the Gate— A Deception Prevented— The Viceroy's Castle 
—The Inner Courts— The Commodore's Eeception— A Tableau— Salutations and 
Ceremonies— Visit to the Eegeut's House— A State Banquet in Loo-Choo— Edibles 
and Beverages- Extent of the Dinner— Toasts— The Interpreter, IchirazichU—De- 
parture- Killing a Loo-Choo'Pony— Eeturn to the Squadron. 

Two days after our arrival at Loo-Choo, the Regent of the 
Island paid a formal visit to Commodore Perry, on board of 
the Susquehanna ; and Monday, the 6th of June, was fixed 
upon as the day when the Commodore should return his visit 
at Shui, the capital, which lies some three or four miles to the 
north-east of Napa. 

The kiDgdom, or vice-royalty of Loo-Choo, which is tribu- 
tary to the Japanese Prince of Satsuma, though frequently 
visited by exploring vessels within the past fifty years, had 
been comparatively little known previous to our arrival. Hall, 
Broughton, Beeehey, aufl the French Admiral Cecile, had sur- 



AN EXPLORATION OF THE INTERIOR. 371 

vejed portions of the coast, but the interior of the island 
remained a terra incognita. The officers of H. B. M. steamer 
Sphinx, which visited Napa in February, 1852, were the first 
who were received in the royal castle of Shui. The heir to the 
vice-royalty is a boy, who was about eleven years old at the time 
of our visit, and the Government was therefore intrusted to the 
hands of a Regent, until he should have attained his majority. 

As soon as communication with the shore had been estab- 
lished, Commodore Perry appointed four officers from the 
Susquehanna and Mississippi, to make an exploring tour 
through the island. I had the good fortune to be one of the 
party. We set out on Monday morning, May 30th, with a 
week's leave of absence, and after having explored rather more 
than half the island, returned on the afternoon of June 4th. 
"We were allowed to take with us four seamen, and four Chinese 
coolies to carry our tents and camping utensils. The party was 
well armed, and furnished with ammunition and ship's rations 
for the necessary cime. This exploration was in many respects 
one of the most peculiar and interesting episodes of travel I 
ever enjoyed. In these days of discovery, a piece of virgin 
earth is comparatively rare. There are few spots on the Earth's 
surface, so accessible as Loo-Choo, into which the European 
race has not yet penetrated. I regret that my application to 
our Government for permission to copy that portion of my 
journal describing it, should have been denied, and that hence 
I am unable to give at present a detailed account of the jour- 
ney. 

The island is about sixty miles in length, from north to 
south, with a varying breadth of from five to ten miles. The 
north-eastern extremity, beyond Port Melville, which we were 



372 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

obliged to leave unexplored, for want of time, is wild, moun- 
tainous, «nd but thinly inhabited. In order to avoid the cun- 
ning and deception of the authorities, no previous notice of our 
journey was given to them. We landed and marched directly 
into the interior, without so much as saying, "by your leave." 
We had not proceeded more than half a mile, however, before 
we were overtaken by a native mandarin of the fifth rank, 
with several subordinate officers, who had been sent in all haste 
to follow us and watch our movements. Their faces exhibited 
considerable surprise and alarm, as they beheld eight armed 
men, with the cool assurance natural to Americans, taking the 
direct road to Shui, their capital. 

We carried with us, as a token of our nationality, a small 
boat's ensign, and on arriving at the gate of the capital, one of 
the sailors fastened it to a light bamboo staff, which he stuck 
into the barrel of his musket, and thus we bore the flag boldly 
through the centre of the town and around the very walls of 
the Viceroy's castle. But rapid as we had been in our march 
from Napa, scouts were in advance of us, and the capital ap- 
peared to be entirely deserted. Every house was closed, and 
scarcely a soul was to be seen in the streets. The few whom 
^e met glided past us with anxious faces, and the cloud on the 
brows of our attendant spies grew darker as we advanced. 
We kept on, nevertheless, and after passing through the town, 
took a course by the compass, and struck across the hills 
towards the opposite shore of the island. From the summit 
of a ridge, about a mile and a half to the eastward, we had a^ 
fi;lorious view of green valleys, sloping down to a broad bay, 
beyond which extended the blue horizon-line of the open Pacific. 
As it drew towards evening, the old mandarin, who sus- 



THE MANDARIN IN FOR A JOURNEY. 373 

pected that we were merely making a day's excursion into the 
country, intimated that it was time to return. We replied by 
signs, that we were going much further, and would not return for 
several days. This was more than he had bargained for : he had 
been appointed to watch us and dare not leave us — and now, will- 
ing or not, he must make the tour of the whole island. His look 
of blank perplexity was at jarst very amusing, but seeing that 
there was no help for his case, he submitted to it with true East- 
ern passiveness, and laughed heartily with us at the prospect be- 
fore him. I must confess that the thirst for exploration made 
us somewhat unfeeling. In our desire to see as much of the 
island as possible within the time allotted to us, we led the old 
mandarin such a dance as he certainly never performed before. 
Although he made use of his authority over the natives, and 
frequently obliged them to carry him in the hago^ or sedan- 
chair of Japan, he would come into the encampment every 
evening, slapping his legs to show how fatigued they were, and 
amusing us, in a good-humored way, with signs of the great 
exhaustion he felt. Notwithstanding this, he visited us regu- 
larly every morning at daybreak, to inquire after our health, 
and exhibited so much patience and kindly feeling in every 
way, that in spite of the annoyance which his oi£ce caused us, 
we all felt a cordial friendship towards him. 

We encamped for the night on the shore of the bay, to 
which the name of Matthews' Bay was given by Commodore 
Perry, in memory of Lieut. John Matthews, of. the Plymouih^ 
who first surveyed it, and who was afterwards lost at the 
Bonin Islands, in a typhoon. Travelling northward the next 
day, over the ridges of the beautiful hills, and by foot-paths 
through forests, we teached at sunset a village on the shore of 



374 INDIA, CHINA^ AND JAPAN. 

Barrow'^ Bay. On the road we discovered tlie ruins of an 
ancient castle, crowning the summit of a high peak. It was 
235 paces in length by 70 in breadth, with walls from six to 
twelve paces in thickness. We afterwards ascertained that 
it had been the palace of one of the former kings of Loo-Choo, 
when the island was divided into three sovereignties. On the 
third day we proceeded around the head of Barrow's Bay, and 
across the northern promontory, to a village called " Ching," 
or " Kanafa." Thence we struck northward into the heart of 
the island, over a range of mountains covered with dense tropi- 
cal forests, intending to make the head of Port Melville, on 
the opposite side, but having swerved too much to the left, 
came down to the shore at a village called Na-Komma. We 
spent the fourth night at the village of Un~na, the features of 
whose lovely valley I have attempted to represent in the fron- 
tispiece to this volume. The fifth day was a weary march of 
twenty-eight miles in a burning sun, over mountains, through 
tangled thickets, deep rice-swamps, and in the glaring sand of 
the sea-shore. We halted for the night at a place called Chan- 
do-kosa, and the next day, after travelling about twenty-five 
miles in a heavy rain, reached the harbor of Napa, having 
journeyed more than a hundred miles through a territory pre- 
viously untrodden by white men. 

The perfection to which the system of espionage is carried 
in Loo-Choo — and consequently in Japan, for the system is 
no doubt the same in both countries — is almost incredible. I 
have no doubt that before the second day of our trip was over, 
the fact was known throughout the whole island, and watchers 
were set around every village, to look out for our approach. 
We were surrounded with a secret power, the tokens of which 



ESnONAGE IN LOO-CHOO. 375 

were invisible, yet wliich we could not move a step without 
feeling. We tried every means to elude it, but in vain. The 
lovely villages with which the island is dotted were deserted 
at our approach, and the inhabitants so well concealed that we 
rarely succeeded in finding them. Only the laborers who were 
at work in the fields were allowed to remain, and even they 
were obliged to keep at a distance from our path. We changed 
our course repeatedly, in the endeavor to mislead the spies, but 
they seemed to comprehend our designs by a species of instinct, 
and wherever we went they had been before us. We scattered 
our forces, each one taking a separate course, but the spies 
were still more numerous than we. We could perceive, however, 
from the demeanor of the natives, that they were well disposed 
towards us, and felt a strong curiosity to become acquainted 
with us — and that it was not so much fear of ourselves, as 
dread of the power of their rulers, which kept them aloof. I 
had a great desire to learn something of their social and domes- 
tic life, and made frequent efi"orts to accomplish my object, by 
plunging into the woods from time to time, outstripping the 
spies, and then darting suddenly into some neighboring village. 
Although I entered many houses, in two or three instances 
only did I find the inhabitants within. On my appearance, 
which must have been very Unexpected and startling, the women 
fell upon their knees, uplifting both hands in an attitude of 
supplication, while the men prostrated themselves and struck 
their foreheads upon the earth. I could only assure them by 
signs of my friendly disposition, and found no difficulty in 
allaying their apprehensions, whenever the spies gave me time 
enough. On one occasion, where I found two women employed 
in weaving the coarse cotton cloth of the country, after the 



376 



first surprise was over, they quietly resumed tlieir occupa- 
tion. 

In other respects, the journey was as agreeable as it was 
interesting. The island is one of the most beautiful in the 
world, and contains a greater variety of scenery than I have 
ever seen within the same extent of territory. The valleys 
and hill-sides are cultivated with a care and assiduity, which 
puts even Chinese agriculture to shame ; the hills are crowned 
with picturesque groves of the Loo-Choo pine, a tree which the 
artist would prize much more highly than the lumberman ; the 
villages are embowered with arching lanes of bamboo, the tops 
of which interlace and form avenues of perfect shade ; while, 
from the deep indentations of both shores, the road along the 
spinal ridge of the island commands the most delightful pros- 
pects of bays and green headlands, on either side. In the 
sheltered valleys, the clusters of sago-palm and banana trees 
give the landscape the character of the Tropics : on the hills, 
the forests of pine recall the scenery of the Temperate Zone. 
The northern part of the island abounds with marshy thickets 
and hills overgrown with dense woodland, infested with wild 
boars, but the southern portion is one vast garden. 

The villages all charmed us by the great taste and neatness 
displayed in their construction. In the largest of them there 
were buildings called cung-qucts, erected for the accommoda- 
tion of the agents of the Government, on their official journeys 
through the island. They were neat wooden dwellings, with 
tiled roofs, the floors covered with soft matting, and the walla 
fitted with sliding screens, so that the whole house could bo 
thrown open or divided into rooms at pleasure. They were 
Burrounded with gardens, enclosed by trim hedges, and were 



377 



always placed in situations where they commanded the view of 
a pleasant landscape. These buildings were appropriated to 
our use, and when, after a hard day's tramp, we had hoisted 
our flag on the roof and stretched ourselves out to rest on the 
soft matting, we would not have exchanged places with the 
old Viceroy himself. As a matter of precaution, we kept 
regular watches through the night, but the natives also kept a 
counter-watch upon us. The cung-qud was often surrounded 
with a ring of watch-fires, and as the inhabitants seized this 
opportunity of gratifying their curiosity, we frequently saw 
hundreds of dusky heads peering at us through the gloom, 
until the appearance of one of the Grovernment spies scattered 
them as effectually as if a bomb-shell had exploded among them. 

On our return to the squadron, I was gratified to find my- 
self among the number chosen to accompany the Commodore 
on his visit to the Regent, at Shui, on the Monday morning 
following. The hour of departure was fixed at nine o'clock, 
and the boats pushed off from the different vessels at the same 
time. The Susquehanna's launches and cutters, conveying 
the field-piece, seamen, bandsmen and marines, presented a 
very lively and animating show, as they rocked over the swell- 
ing waves. The .morning was cloudy, with a brisk wind ; but 
though a passing shower threw its veil over the hills while on 
our way to the landing-place, the sky soon came out bright 
and blue, and the day was as fresh and pleasant as could have 
be6n wished. 

The point of disembarcation was the little village of Tu- 
mai, lying north of the sandy flats (covered at high tides), 
which separate the promontory of Napa from the . hills of the 
island. From this place it is not more than two miles to Shui. 



378 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

On entering the creek wliich runs up to Tumai we found most 
of tlie boats already arrived, and the marines drawn up in 
line along the road under a grove of trees. G-roups of officers, 
in undress uniform, were gathered in the shade; the boats' 
crews, in high spirits, were watching the preparations, and some 
hundreds of natives, among whom were many of the more 
respectable class, looked on with evident interest. The Com- 
modore's barge having arrived, he, with Commander Adams, 
Captain of the fleet, Lieut. Contee, Flag Lieutenant, and Com- 
manders Buchanan, Lee and Walker, passed in review the files 
of marines and artillerymen. 

The procession then formed in regular order. First went 
the two field-pieces, each with the American ensign displayed, 
under the command of Lieut. Bent, of the Mississippi; the 
interpreters, Mr. Wells Williams and Dr. Bettelheim, walked 
in advance, followed by Mr. Bennet, Master of the Susquehan- 
na, who commanded the first field-piece. After the artillery 
followed the Susquehanna's band, and a company of marines, 
under Major Zeilin. The Commodore came next, in a sedan- 
chair, which our carpenter had made for the occasion. It was 
carried by four Chinese coolies, with a relay of four more. 
A marine walked on each side as body-guard, with two of the 
Commodore's personal attendants. Behind the chair were the 
Captain of the Fleet, the Flag Lieutenant, and the Commo- 
dore's Secretary. Six coolies followed, bearing the presents 
intended for the Prince and Queen Dowager, guarded by a file 
of marines. Among them I noticed arms of different kinds, 
and specimens of American manufactured goods. The officers 
accompanying the Commodore followed in a body, headed by 
Commanders Buchanan, Lee and Walker. Their servants, tha 



THE MARCH TO SHUT. 379 

Mississippi's band, and a second company of marines, under 
Capt. Slack, of the Mississippi, closed the procession. The 
entire number of persons composing it, was about 215, of whom 
32 were officers, 122 seamen and marines, and 30 musicians. 

It was one of the most picturesque processions of its size 
that I have ever seen. The beauty of the day, the brilliant 
green of the wooded hills through which our road lay, and the 
cheerful strams of the bands, gave the occasion a most mspir- 
ing character. Numbers of the natives gathered on both sides 
of the road to see us pass, and a large crowd followed in our 
rear. There did not appear to be the least alarm on their part, 
but a pleased excitement, for the procession, notwithstanding 
its martial character, had a festive and friendly air. In the 
narrow lanes branching into the road, the foremost ranks of the 
crowd knelt, the next stooped, and those in the rear stood up- 
right, in order to allow as many as possible to see the display. 
Very soon, however, we emerged from the village, passed a 
large temple at the foot of the hill behind it, and came out 
upon the open, undulating country south of Shui. The rice- 
fields rolled in heavy waves before the wind, and the dark green 
foliage of the groves in which Shui is embowered, glittered in 
the sun. The natives were grouped here and there, in the 
shade of clumps of the Loo-Choo pine, and numbers of them 
were seen running along the ridges between the rice-fields in 
order to get ahead of us and obtain another view. 

The march occupied nearly an hour, the bands playing 
alternately during the whole time. The road was familiar to 
me, as we had passed through Shui on our tour of exploration, 
but the other officers were charmed with the scenery, especially 
as we climbed the hill on which the capital is built, and saw 



380 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN 

the rich* cultivated landscape spreading away southward and 
westward. The Loo-Choo official, appointed to meet us at the 
landing-place, and accompany us to Shui, proved to be Chang- 
yiien, the same old Pe-ching, or mandarin of the fifth class, 
who had been our guide and companion during the expedition. 
At the gate of Shui, we were met by a crowd of native digni- 
taries, with their attendants, all in brilliantly clean robes of 
grass-cloth, and red and yellow hatchee-matchees, as the pecu- 
liar cap worn in Loo-Choo is called, upon their heads. The 
old Regent, and his three venerable coadjutors, the Treasurers 
of the Kingdom, here made their appearance, and after salut- 
ing the Commodore, turned about and accompanied the pro- 
cession, which passed in through the central arch, without halt, 
and marched up the great street of the city. There was a 
large train of native servants, in attendance upon the Regent 
and Chiefs, bearing umbrellas, " chow-chow" or refreshment 
boxes, cases for caps, and other articles. The inscription over 
the gate is " The Central Hill," signifying, according to Mr. 
Williams, " the place of authority." The lower orders of the 
natives are not permitted to pass through the central arch. 

The main street is lined with high walls, with but few 
alleys branching out of it. It was kept clear of spectators by 
the native officers who preceded us, except in a street on the 
left, leading to the house of the Regent, which was filled with 
a concourse of persons. On reaching this point, the Regent, 
who was in advance, requested, through his interpreter, that 
the procession should proceed at once to his house. As this 
was evidently a scheme to prevent our entering the castle, a 
determination on the Commodore's part which seemed to give 
them much anxiety, Mr. "Williams paid no attention to the 



THE viceroy's CASTLE. 381 

request, but marched on toward the castle gate. The recep- 
tion of the officers of the Sphinx within its walls, left the Com- 
modore no alternative but to exact equal respect. 

The Regent did not seem to have anticipated that we 
should carry the point, for the gate of the castle was closed. 
A messenger was sent forward at full speed to open it, and 
make preparations for the Commodore's reception. On reaching 
the entrance, the artillery and marines were drawn up in line, 
and the Commodore, followed by his staff and suite of officers, 
walked past into the castle, while the troops presented arms 
and lowered the ensigns, and the band struck up "Hail 
Columbia." 

Entering the first gateway, we found a second wall and 
portal above us, still further strengthened by a natural cliff, 
upon which part of it was built. Along the foot of this wall 
and the parapet of the one below, grew clusters of the beauti- 
ful sago palm, many of which were in flower. A small stream 
of water, trickling from an aperture above, fell into a subter- 
ranean drain. On either side of it were planted two tall stone 
tablets, with sculptured inscriptions upon them. Two rudely 
sculptured lions, nearly the size of life, were placed at the second 
entrance, which ushered us into an outer court of the palace, 
on the summit of the height. It was irregular in shape, and 
surrounded by houses which appeared to be designed for ser- 
vants and others attached to the royal household. On the 
eastern side was another gateway, resembling the Chinese por- 
tals of honor. It consisted of two arches, and the Commodore 
and his suite were conducted through the right-hand one. 
This brought us into what appeared to be the central court of 
the palace. It was not more than eighty feet square, surround- 



382 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

ed witli^ one-story wooden edifices, remarkable neither for style 
nor decoration. The court was paved with gravel and large 
tiles, arranged in alternate lozenges. The hall of reception 
was on the northern side, the other buildings, or portions of the 
main edifice, being closed by screens against all view from with- 
out. Into this hall, which, like all Loo-Choo houses, had an 
outer verandah, the Commodore was conducted, and placed at 
its head on the right hand, followed by the other officers, accord- 
ing to their rank. Chairs of dark wood, varnished, and made 
exactly upon the principle of our camp-stools, were brought, and 
all the guests were soon ranged in a single row along the right 
hand, and a double one across the bottom of the room, while 
the Regent and Treasurers sat upon the left side, with a double 
rank of attendants behind them. The Interpreters occupied a 
position at the head of the room, between the Commodore and 
Kegent. On the wall above them was a large red tablet, with 
an inscription in gilded characters, which Mr. Williams trans- 
lated as signifying : " The Elevated Enclosure of Fragrant 
Festivities." 

Neither the Queen Dowager nor the young Prince made 
their appearance. Among the reasons urged by the Regent 
why the Commodore should defer his visit to Shui, was the 
alleged illness of the Queen, caused by the visit of the officers 
of the Sphinx. The royal lady's nerves, it was said had been 
so agitated by that event, that she had been under medical 
treatment ever since, and another occurrence of the kind might 
prove dangerous to her. The Commodore politely ofiered to send 
one of his surgeons to prescribe for her, but this was declined. 
It was probably not considered politic to produce the Prince, 
on account of his youth. After the first salutations had bt^en 



CHINESE VISITING CARDS. 383 

made, tallies were brought, and cups of very weak tea present- 
ed to the guests. Smoking boxes were distributed around the 
room, and dishes of leathery twists of gingerbread placed upon 
the tables. But it was evident that our coming had not been 
expected, and no preparations made to receive us. The sides 
of the room were separated from the other parts of the build- 
ing by paper screens, and I fancied that there were listeners 
and observers (possibly the old Queen herself) behind them. 
The whole scene, in fact, could hardly have been less interest- 
ing to the native spectators than to ourselves. The strong 
contrast between the American uniforms of blue and gold, and 
the simple gray and fawn-colored robes of the four dignitaries 
who confronted them, as well as between the keen eyes and ac- 
tive, energetic faces of the one race, and the venerable gray 
beards and impassive features of the other, gave it somewhat 
of a dramatic air, which rather added to, than diminished the 
impression it made. Those four personages had all the gravity 
and dignity which might have belonged to Koman Senators, or 
rather, to members of the Venetian Council of Ten. 

After the usual salutations on both sides, the Commodore 
invited the Regent and his three associates to visit him on 
board the Susquehanna. He stated that he intended leaving 
Napa in a day or two, but that he should return again after 
ten days, and would receive them at any time they appointed, 
either before or after his absence. To this they replied that 
they would leave the time of the visit to be fixed by the Com 
modore himself, whereupon he stated that he preferred it 
should be postponed until after his return. They acceded to 
this with apparent gratification. Several large red cards, simi« 
lar to those used on state occasions in China, were then pro 



B84 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

duced. ^hc Regent taking tliem in liis liand, all four roso, 
came forward a few steps, and bowed profoundly. The Com- 
modore and all the others rose and returned the salutation. 
The Commodore then stated, that if there were any articles 
on board any of the vessels which the Regent might need, or 
desire to possess, he would gladly supply him with them. They 
again rose, advanced, and bowed as before. The dignitaries 
did not seem quite at ease, probably on account of our having 
stolen a march upon them, in entering the castle. 

The interview had lasted nearly an hour, when the Regent 
rose and proposed that the Commodore should pay him a visit 
at his official residence. The procession was thereupon formed 
in the same order, and returned to the street, where we had 
been invited to enter, on our arrival. The Regent's house was 
in this street, a short distance from the main avenue. The 
seamen, marines and musicians remained behind, in charge of 
a few officers. The Commodore and his suite were conducted 
into the house, which was rather larger than usual, but not 
distinguished by any appearance of wealth, or insignia of office. 
It consisted of a central hall with wings, open toward the 
court-yard, from which it was only separated by a narrow 
verandah, approached by a flight of stone steps. The building 
was of wood, and the pillars supporting it, with the beams of 
the ceilings, were painted of a dark-red color. The floor was 
covered with thick, fine matting, each mat being rigorously 
made according to the legal dimensions. 

Four tables were set in the central apartment, and three in 
each of the wings, and already covered with a profuse colla- 
tion. Immediately on entering we were requested to seat our- 
Belves. The Commodore, with Commanders Buchanan and 



A ROYAL DINNER. 385 

Adams, took the highest table on the right baud, and the Regent 
md his associates the one opposite on the left. At each corner 
uf the tables lay a pair of chop-sticks. In the centre stood an 
earthen pot filled with sackee, surrounded with four acorn- 
cups, four large cups of coarse china, with clumsy spoons of 
the same material, and four tea-cups. From this centre radiated 
a collection of dishes of very different shapes and sizes, and still 
more different contents. There were nineteen on the table at 
which I sat, but I can only enumerate a few of them : Eggs, 
dyed crimson and sliced ; fish made into rolls and boiled in fat ; 
cold pieces of baked fish ; slices of hog's liver ; sugar candy ; 
cucumbers ; mustard ; salted radish tops ; curds made of bean 
flour ; fragments of fried lean pork, and several nondescripts, 
the composition of which it was impossible to tell. 

The repast began with cups of tea, which were handed 
around, followed by tiny cups of sackee, which was of much 
superior quality to any we had yet tasted on the island. It was 
old and mellow, with a sharp, sweet, unctuous flavor, somewhat 
like French liqueur. Small bamboo sticks, sharpened at one 
end, were then presented to us. We at first imagined them to 
be tooth-picks, but soon found that they were designed to stick 
in the balls of meat and dough, which floated in the cups of 
soup, constituting the first course. Six or eight cups of diflerent 
kinds of soup followed, and the attendants, meanwhile, assidu- 
ously filled up the little cups of sackee. We had a handsome, 
bright-eyed youth as our Ganymede, and the smile with which 
he pressed us to eat and drink, was irresistible. The abundance 
of soup reminded me of a Chinese repast. Of the twelve courses 
— the number appropriated to a royal dinner — which were 
served to us, eight were soups, and many of them so similar in 
17 



386 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

composition as not to be distinguished by a palate unpractised 
in Loo-Choo delicacies. The other four were — ^gingerbread; 
a salad made of bean-sprouts and tender onion-tops ; a basket 
of what appeared to be a dark-red fruit, about the size of a 
peach, but proved to be balls, composed of a thin rind of 
unbaked dough, covering a sugary pulp ; and a delicious mix- 
ture of beaten eggs, and the aromatic, fibrous roots of the gin- 
ger-plant. The gingerbread had a true home flavor, and was 
not to be despised. The officers did their best to do honor to 
the repast^ but owing to the number of dishes could do little 
more than taste the courses as they were served up. Although 
we left at the end of the twelfth course, we were told that 
twelve more were in readiness to follow. 

After the eighth or ninth course, the Commodore rose and 
proposed as a toast, the health of the Queen Mother and the 
young Viceroy, adding : " Prosperity to the Loo-Chooans, and 
may they and the Americans always be friends ! " This toast, 
having been translated to the Regent, appeared to gratify hiia 
highly, and it was drunk standing, with Loo-Choo honors, 
which consists in draining the tea-spoonful of sackee at one 
gulp, and turning the cup bottom upwards. The Commodore 
afterwards proposed the health of the Regent and his associates, 
which the latter returned by giving that of the Commodore and 
the officers of the Squadron. By this time the anxiety and 
embarrassment of the Chiefs had entirely worn off, and the 
entertainment wound up with the best p ossible feeling. How 
much of the anxiety was assumed, or what was its cause, we 
had no means of ascertaining ; but from what little I have seen 
of the Loo-Chooans, I am satisfied that there is a strong basis of 
cunning in their character. The interpreter on the part of the 



RETURN ON BOARD. 387 

Begent was a very intelligent young native, name Ichirazichi^ 
who had been educated at Pekin, where he remained three 
years. He spoke a little English, and had some knowledge, 
both of the geographical position of the United States, and 
their history. He spoke of Washington as a very great Man- 
darin. He had a more swarthy complexion than is usually 
found among the educated Loo-Chooans, a keen black eye, and 
a shrewd, cunning expression of countenance. 

The Commodore left the Regent's house about one o'clock, 
when the procession formed in the same order as before. The 
subordinate officials accompanied us to the gate, and the old 
Pe-ching again took his station in advance. On starting down 
the hill, the four ponies, which had gone up with us with- 
out finding riders, were again led to the rear. Several of us 
profited by this neglect, to mount for a ride down, and try the 
temper of the Loo-Choo horses. The ponies were very small 
animals, of a bay color, but rather active and spirited. They 
were accoutred like the Chinese horses, with saddles of Turkish 
fashion, and enormous iron stirrups, curved backwards, so as 
to admit not only the foot but part of the leg. They were 
led by grooms, and we could not succeed in bringing them 
into line behind the rear company of marines, on account of 
their jealousy of each other. The little chargers kicked and 
plunged several times with great vivacity. 

The sun, shining full in the face of the hill, made our de- 
scent a sultry one, but as we came upon the wooded slopes a 
sea-breeze met us, and groups of the boats' crews who had 
come off to convey us back to the vessels, were seen under the 
trees, watching our approach. Several hundreds of the na- 
tives followed us, and as we drew near the shore, they were 



388 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

seen scampering over the rice-fields in every direction, to get 
a final view of our array. Fifteen boats, each flying the 
American colors, lay in the mouth of the creek. The Com- 
modore and suite immediately embarked, and the wind being 
fair, the cutters hoisted sail, and dashed away over the bright 
blue waves, passing the slow white launches, with their loads 
of marines and artillerymen. All were on board by half-past 
two. without any untoward incident having occurred to mar 
the successful issue of the trip. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

VOYAGE TO THE BONIN ISLANDS. 

Departure— The Bonin, or Arzobispo Isles— Death of a Chinese Opium Smoker— A 
Peruvian Bark — Approach to the Bonin Islands— Pilots— Entering Port Lloyd— Go- 
ing Ashore — A Settler's Ilut — Society on the Island— Mode of Life — An Old Inhab- 
itant and his Mate— Productions of the Island — A Coaling Station for Steamers — 
Buckland Island— A Basaltic Cavern— English Claims to the Islands. 

On the 9tli of June, Commodore Perry left the harbor of Napa 
in the Susquehanna, for a visit to the Bonin or Arzobispo 
Isles, which lie in Lat. 27^ N., Long. 140^ 30^E.,or between 
eight and nine hundred miles from Loo-Choo. We took the 
sloop-of-war Saratoga in tow, leaving the Mississippi behind, 
as we did not expect to be absent more than two weeks. 

The Bonin Islands have scarcely been heard of in the Uni- 
ted States, except through an occasional whaling vessel, some 
of which are in the habit of touching there, in order to pro- 
cure fresh provisions. They are about 500 miles in a south- 
erly direction from the Bay of Yedo, and are called by the 
Japanese Mo or Mou nin sima, signifying " uninhabited 
islands," whence the English term, Bonin. In Kompfer's work 
on Japan, there is an account of their discovery by the Japan- 
ese, two and a half centuries ago, and the same, with a more 



390 IKDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

minute clescription of their appearance anci productions, is to 
be found in Klaproth's translation of a Japanese work on the 
three tributary Kingdoms of Corea, Loo-Choo, and Jeso. 
They were also discovered by a Spanish Admiral, and named 
the " Islas del Arzobispo," long prior to Capt. Beech ey's visit 
and survey in 1827. To the latter navigator, however, we 
are indebted for the first accurate account of their location 
and extent. 

We were favored by the south-west monsoon, and had a 
delightful run of five days, with nothing to interrupt the uni- 
formity of sea life, except frequent calls to " general quar- 
ters," and the death of Mr. Williams' Chinese Secretary. 
The latter fell a victim to the practice of smoking opium. He 
attempted to give it up, and this, with a spell of sea-sickness 
on board the Saratoga, so enfeebled him that no medicines 
produced any effect, and he sank into a state of nervelessness 
and emaciation shocking to witness. His body was reduced 
to a skeleton, and all his nervous energy so completely de- 
stroyed, that for a week before his death every fibre in his 
frame was in a state of constant agitation. His face was a 
ghastly yellow, the cheeks sunken upon the bones, and the 
eyes wild and glassy with a semi-madness which fell upon him. 
His whole aspect reminded me of one of those frightful heads 
in wax, in the museum of Florence, representing the efi'ects of 
the plague. He was a complete wreck, both in mind and 
body, and nothing that I ever saw of the results of intoxica- 
tion from spirituous liquors has impressed me with half the 
horror. 

On the morning of the 12th we passed a Peruvian bark, 
with a cargo of coolies, bound for the guano islands. She was 



ENTERING PORT LLOYD. 391 

steering nearly the same course as ourselves, under a cloud of 
canvas, with studding-sails and royals set, hut we did not 
pass within hail. The sight of a leviathan steamer — the first 
that ever ploughed those seas — towing a large vessel after her, 
must have greatly astonished the Peruvians. 

At sunrise on the 14th, we saw the Bonin Islands before 
us, with the Bailly Islands about fifteen miles distant, in a 
south-easterly direction, and Parry's Group barely visible in 
the north-east. The three islands of the Bonin Group, Peel, 
Buckland, and Stapleton, lie close together, within an extent, 
collectively, of ten miles from north to soutL We made 
for the harbor of Port Lloyd, on the western side of Peel 
Island, where the only inhabitants — a small community of 
Kanakas, with some runaway English and American sailors — 
have taken up their abode. On approaching the entrance to 
the harbor a gun was fired for a pilot, which, it appeared, was 
the first intimation the residents had of our arrival. In a 
short time two canoes appeared, and we were boarded by two 
natives, who attracted considerable attention, as being the vag- 
abond inhabitants of that remote corner of the world. One of 
them appeared to be a cross between Portuguese and Kanaka. 
He wore a tattered straw hat, blue cotton jacket and panta- 
loons, and was bare-footed. The other was a youth about 
twenty years old, lithe and graceful in his form, and with a 
quick, bright eye and rather intelligent face. He was the 
only native of the island, and the son of a Portuguese named 
John Bravo. 

Their sailing directions were of little use, but the entrance 
to the port was broad and deep, and we moved on slowly and 
securely to an anchorage in twenty-one fathoms, abreast a 



392 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

dense gFOve of trees, bordering a beach on tbe nortbern sbore. 
Nearly east of us rose the high twin peaks, named " The Paps " 
by Capt. Beechey ; a little further to the south, beyond a rocky 
islet named " Castle Rock," was a narrow beach, at the foot 
of a ravine, down which flowed a stream, the usual watering- 
place of the whalers. With the exception of three or four 
similar beaches, the shores were bold and precipitous, and the 
mountains behind, rising in steep, picturesque outlines, were 
covered to their very summits with the richest tropical vegeta- 
tion. 

Towards evening I went ashore in the gig. Near the 
northern beach there is a bank of coral, dropping suddenly 
mto a track of deep water, which forms what is called " Ten 
Fathom Hole." This extends so far up the bay, that vessels 
of the largest size may lie within a hundred feet of the shore, 
in a position completely landlocked, and sheltered from every 
wind. The trees which lined the beach were entirely new to 
me. They had heavy, crooked trunks and boughs, and large 
ovate leaves of a bright-green color. The settlers called them 
tamanas. Two immense turtles, which had been caught the 
night before, lay sprawling upon their backs in the shade, and 
a white man, who described himself as an Englishman named 
Webb, with two Kanakas, were sitting lazily upon an inverted 
canoe, made of the hollowed trunk of a tree. The shells of 
other turtles were lying on the sand, and exhaled not the 
freshest of odors. An opening through the trees showed us a 
neat cabin behind, surrounded with a low paling. 

The Englishman, who was civil and respectful, though si- 
lent, rarely speaking unless in answer to our questions, led the 
way and opened the door. The interior was small, but exceed- 



SOCIETY ON PEEL ISLAND. 393 

ingly neat and tasteful. The frame of tlie hut, and the ridge- 
poles and rafters were all of equal size, and painted a light 
blue color. The thatch was of leaves of the fan-palm, and im- 
pervious to rain. There was an outer room, with a table and 
a few chairs, and two sleeping apartments in the rear, which 
were kept carefully closed during the day, on account of the 
abundance of mosquitos. The walls were covered with Chinese 
matting, and a row of gaudily-colored French lithographs of 
female iSgures hung across the partition. Within the paled 
enclosure were two other low, rude structures of palm leaves, 
one of which served as a kitchen, while the other was appro- 
priated to the Kanakas, a well, and three flourishing papaya 
trees. Behind the house was a narrow and beautiful plain, 
covered with sweet potatoes, melons, and sugar cane, with the 
palm forests of the mountains in the background. The line of 
trees along the beach was narrow, and merely left to protect 
the garden-land in the rear from the violence of sudden squalls, 
which sometimes prevail in the summer. 

The Englishman stated that he had been seven years on 
the island. There was a kind of hesitation in his manner of 
speaking, which I fancied arose from an absence of intercourse 
with civilized society, as he seemed to be a man of average in- 
telligence. There was, apparently, little association among 
the settlers. So far as I could learn, there are no rules of 
government accepted by them ; each lives upon his own soil, 
by virtue of the right of pre-emption, and interferes as little as 
possible in the affairs of his neighbors. The oldest inhabitant, 
who probably exercises a sort of authority in cases of dispute, 
is a native of Massachusetts, named Savory, who has been on 
the island since 1831, and is considered the richest of the 
17* 



394 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

settlers. His money has been principally made by selling 
sweet potatoes to whaling ships, at the rate of two dollars 
a barrel ; in addition to which he has a still, and manufactures 
rum from sugar-cane. At the time of our visit he had two 
hogsheads of it, which was said to be of excellent quality. The 
population is continually floating, with the exception of four or 
five persons who were among the original settlers of the island. 
Sailors from the whaling vessels frequently desert, and remain 
a year or two, after which they embark again. The whalers 
are mostly American, and, according to the settlers, generally 
conduct themselves peaceably. There was a flagrant exception, 
however, in the case of one vessel, the crew of which robbed 
Savory of $2,000 and carried off the daughter of Bravo, to- 
gether with a Kanaka woman. The persons implicated were 
afterwards arrested at Honolulu for the abduction, but by that 
time the women were satisfied with their captivity, and de- 
clared that they left the island of their own accord. 

Further up the beach, we found another hut, inhabited by 
an old Englishman, who had been there for more than twenty 
years. He was upwards of fifty years old, of small stature, 
but hale and active, and the sun, which had bleached his brown 
hair into a tow color, had burned his face, neck, breast and 
arms of a deep red. He seemed to have wholly forgotten the 
world from which he came, and declared his intention never to 
leave the island, but to die, as he had lived, in that Pacific 
solitude. He had a Kanaka woman, named Bet, a frightfully 
fat and ugly creature, but very good humored. On our asking 
for water-melons, he sent her with a bag into the field, and 
when she had returned with three or four of the ripest, the 
good woman sat down to take breath, and never ceased chuck- 



A COALING STATION FOR STEAMERS. 395 

ling with delight at the rapacity with which we sliced and ate 
them. "We saw a number of banana trees, but it was too soon 
in the season for the fruit to be ripe. The sweet potatoes 
were a round, mealy variety, and superior in every way to the 
Chinese. The old man had a rough apparatus for crushing 
sugar-cane, and a boiler in which he made molasses from the 
juice. There were a number of fowls and ducks in the vicinity 
of all the cabins, but so wild, the people informed me, that it 
was impossible to take them alive. In fact, the settlers seemed 
to lack nothing which the simple wants of nature required, and 
probably preferred the easy, quiet life of the island, and its 
genial cl9nate, to the society of their homes and the ruder toils 
which would await them there. There have been moments 
when I have coveted such a lot ; but now, nothing could have 
been more terrible than the prospect of being left among them. 
While I inhabit the world, let me be borne on its most crowded 
stream, and feel the pulses of its deepest and most earnest 
life! 

Commodore Perry saw at once the advantages of Port 
Lloyd as a station for steamers, whenever a line shall be estab- 
lished between China and California. It is not only the most 
eligible, but perhaps the only spot in the Pacific, west of the 
Sandwich Islands, which promises to be of real advantage for 
such a purpose. It is about 3,800 miles from the latter place, 
and 1,100 from Shanghai, and almost on the direct line between 
the two points. If the Sandwich Islands are to be included in 
the proposed route (as is most probable). Peel Island is even 
preferable to a port in Japan, which, on the other hand, would 
be most convenient for a direct northern line from Oregon. The 
Commodore, on the day after our arrival, obtained from Mr. 



396 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

Savory the title to a tract of land, on the northern side of the 
bay, near its head. It has a front of 1,000 yards on the water, 
and extends across the island to a small bight on the northern 
side, which he named Pleasant Bay. The location is admirably 
adapted for a coaling station for steamers, since a pier fifty feet 
long would strike water deep enough to float the largest vessel. 
The soil of Peel Island is the richest vegetable mould, and 
might be made to produce abundant supplies, while its moun- 
tain streams furnish a never-failing source of excellent water. 

The Commodore also paid a visit to BucMand Island, 
accompanied by Commanders Buchanan, Adams and Walker, 
and a number of officers. The cattle which we had brought 
from Shanghai were put ashore on the eastern side of Peel 
Island, at a point where there was good water, and, as Savory 
stated, a tolerably large tract of table-land. The sheep were 
left on Stapleton Island, where there were already about six 
thousand wild goats. 

On the day before leaving Port Lloyd, I went in a boat to 
examine a fine marine cave in a bold island rock, at the southern 
entrance of the Bay, to which Beechey gave the name of 
" Southern Head." The trap rock, which here takes a basaltic 
form, exhibits several large apertures, one of which extends 
through the Head, to the beach on the opposite side. The 
entrance is about fifteen feet wide and thirty high, with from 
one to two fathoms of water. Soon, however, the roof expands 
to a height of forty or fif ^y feet, in the form of a Gothic arch, 
with a longitudinal beam, or keystone, inserted in the centre. 
After rowing along for twenty-five yards, we came to a beach 
of smooth pebbles, upon which a light shone through from the 
other side, and passing a low arch, and climbing a mound of 



ENGLISH CLAIMS TO THE ISLAND. 397 

earth and stones, we stood upon the opposite shore. In a large 
rocky headland, lying opposite to us, there was a cave a hun- 
dred yards long, passing entirely through, and traversed by the 
canoes of the natives. After taking a bath in the clear, shaded 
waters, where we had moored our boat, we pulled out again 
through another branch of the cave, with a narrower entrance. 
Not far from this there was still another cave, wth two entrances, 
separated by a huge pillar of rock. The water was so clear that 
we distinctly saw bottom at four fathoms. The bed of the 
cavern was varied with groves of blue and purple corals, and 
the rocks beneath the water line were studded with patches of 
the purest emerald green, caused, apparently, by the combina- 
tion of some of their component parts with the salts of the 
sea. Through the dark, rugged arch of the entrance, the 
bright blue surface of the bay, and the sides of the palmy 
hills beyond, shone with indescribable lustre, like a picture 
burnt in enamel. 

Capt. Beechey took possession of the Benin Islands in the 
name of Great Britain, though with what justice I cannot see, 
since he could not claim the right of discovery. There was 
some attempt at one time, I believe, to found a colony, but it 
has long since been relinquished. The only show of English 
sovereignty at the time of our visit was a ragged flag, left in 
the charge of a Kanaka, who hoisted it the day after our arri- 
val. Mellichamp, who was sent to Port Lloyd by the English 
Consul at Honolulu, had left nearly two years previous, for 
Guam, where he was then remaining, unable, it was said, to 
leave the placa 





CHAPTER XXXII. 

AN EXPLORING TRIP THROUGH PEEL ISLAND. 

Exploring Parties Appointed— My Part— Setting Out— Climbing the Hills— The Soil 
and Productions— Land-Crabs— Crossing a Eidge— A Tropical Kavine— Signs of 
Habitation— A Marquesan and his Household— South-Sea Pilots— The Valley— The 
Forest Again — Trees— Shooting a Wild Boar— The Southern Coast— A Precipice- 
Dangerous Climbing — A Frightful Ravine — Descending the Precipices — South-East 
Bay — The Nom-Camp— Ascent of the Eavine — The Party beginning to Fag— The 
Valley Again — A Slippery Ascent — A Man Lost — Firing Signals — Eeturn to the 
Vessel. 

On the day of our arrival at Port Lloyd, Commodore 
Perry announced his determination to send two exploring par- 
ties into the interior of the island on the following day. Dr. 
Fahs, Assistant Surgeon, was appointed to the command of 
one, and myself of the other. A number of volunteers at once 
offered themselves, and we made our selections and arranged 
our plans without delay. We were supplied with carbines, 
ammunition and haversacks, with a day's rations. The island 
is not more than six miles in length, in a straight line, so that 
it was thought that two parties might readily explore the whole 
of it in the course of a day. .Dr. Fahs and I accordingly 
divided it between us, he taking the northern portion, or that 



CLIMBINa THE HILLS. 399 

lying immediately around Port Lloyd, wMIe I decided to strike 
across the central part of the island to its southern extremity, 
touching by the way, if possible, on Fitton Bay, a harbor on 
the eastern coast. 

My party consisted of Mr. Heine, artist ; Mr. Boardman, 
Midshipman ; Mr. Lawrence, Assistant Engineer ; Mr. Hamp- 
ton, Purser's Steward ; Dennis Terry, a seaman ; Smith, a 
marine, and a Chinese coolie. We left the ship's side before 
sunrise, and were put ashore at the watering-place at the head 
of the bay. I divided the rations and ammunition, allotting to 
each man his share, so that we all carried light loads. There 
was no one at the watering-place except a Kanaka, whom we 
could not obtain for a guide. He pointed out, however, a 
small foot-path, which he said went over the hills to a Kanaka 
settlement, about three miles distant. We struck into it at 
once, plunging into a wilderness of dense vegetation, which 
furnished a faint type of our experience for the rest of the day. 

The path was steep and slippery ; the plants were wet with 
a heavy dew, and the wild parasitic vines which hung from tree 
to tree, continually caught us in their toils. The trees were 
principally palm, among which I noticed the true sago palm, 
from which the sago of commerce is made. The soil was a rich, 
dark red loam, composed of disintegrated trap rock and vege- 
table mould. The same soil prevails all over the island, so far 
as my observations extended, except on the northern shore of 
Port Lloyd, where it is mixed with a grayish sand and pebbles. 
Trap rock, of a coarse texture, appeared frequently on the 
steeper declivities of the ridge, and I noticed growing in the 
crevices a variety of the hibiscus, with a large fiower of a dull 
orange color The ground was in many places covered with 



400 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

a shower of white blossoms, which I afterwards found had 
dropped from a tree about thirty feet high, with a small, 
glossy leaf, thick foliage, and a stout trunk of a whitish color. 

The forest became more dense as we reached the summit 
of the ridge. The thick, luxuriant crowns of the palms, above 
our heads, kept out the rays of the sun, and the trunks and 
creepers combined made such an impervious shade that it was 
impossible to see more than fifteen or twenty yards in any 
direction. The path was but little used, and rather difficult 
to be traced. As we came into the beds of water-coursea 
leading down the opposite side, the multitudes of large brown 
land-crabs that scampered out of our path was truly amazing. 
The ground was alive with them in the cool, moist corners of 
the ravines, and some of them were fully six inches in breadth. 
The top of the ridge, an undulating region, furrowed with deep 
gulleys, was about a mile and a half in breadth, after which 
we came upon a descent at so sharp an angle that we were 
obliged to swing ourselves down from tree to tree, to prevent 
tumbling into the bottom of the ravine. An opening through 
the woods showed us a wild dell, completely shut in by precipi- 
tous mountains, every foot of whose sides, except the walls of 
naked rock on either hand, was covered with the richest foliage. 
A stream of good water lapsed over the rocky bottom, fringed 
by rank thickets of palm and other trees, while the bristling 
'pandanus thrust its serried, spiky leaves over the tops of the 
cliffs, and the long, loose tresses of flowering creepers, shaken 
from some overhanging bough, swung in the air. The scenery 
was tropical in every feature, and as wild and rugged as nature 
could make it. 

The ravine opened to the southward into a narrow valley 



A MARQUESAN AND HIS HOUSEHOLD. 401 

wliicli showed signs of being inhabited. Crossing the stream, 
we came upon a patch of the taro plant, the stalks of which 
were the highest and most luxuriant I ever saw. We here lost 
the path, and struck directly through the taro. It was fully 
six feet high, and so drenched with the night's dew that we 
were speedily wet to the skin. Finding the forest beyond im- 
practicable, on account of its steepness and density, we re- 
turned to the bed of the stream. The little valley into which 
it ushered us was covered with patches of sweet potato, taro, 
pumpkins, tobacco, sugar-cane, and the sida, or Indian goose 
berry, growing with a prodigal strength and luxuriance. Two 
huts thatched with palm-leaves, stood in the centre of the 
valley. Finding them both deserted, though exhibiting evi 
dences of having been occupied that morning, we fired oui 
guns, the report of which was answered by a hail. Presently 
a South-Sea Islander, in a coarse cotton shirt and pantaloons, 
and with one half of his face tattooed a light blue, made hia 
appearance. He said he was a native of Nukaheva, in the 
Marquesas, and his name was " Judge." He conducted us 
around the corner of the mountain, where the valley opened 
westward to the sea. The stream became a creek deep enough 
for canoes, in one of which the Judge had just arrived, bring- 
ing a large turtle with him. He was already half through with 
the operation of cutting up the flesh, while four dogs looked 
on wistfully, waiting to pick the shell when he should have 
finished. The Judge was apparently in good circumstances, 
having in addition to his hut, his plantation, his turtles and 
dogs, a pen of black hogs. I asked him to accompany us to 
the southern extremity of the island, which he said was about 
three or four miles distant. There was no path, and he did 



402 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

not seem inclined to go, but lie sent his boy after a companion, 
who, he said, could pilot us over the hills. The latter was a 
tawny native of Otaheite, and spoke very little English. He 
confessed that he knew the way, as well as the wild-boar haunts 
in the woods, but refused to go without the Judge. As it was 
next to impossible to find our way without a guide, I settled 
the matter by taking both. 

The valley was bounded on the south by high mountains, 
which appeared to us impassable, on account of the lines of 
mural rock, rising one above another to their very summits. The 
main branch, however, was not that into which we had at first 
descended, but ran away to the eastward, whence the stream 
came down a long ravine, between two peaks. The natives 
informed me that the sea was about half a mile distant, from 
which I should judge the entire length of the valley to be near 
a mile and a half, with an average breadth of a quarter of a 
mile. Its bed is the richest loam, and all the vegetables planted 
by the settlers were unequalled of their kind. The stream of 
water is sweet and pure, and the supply is constant in all sea- 
sons. I saw several lemons in the Judge's hut, which had been 
raised in the valley. The tobacco was five feet in height, and 
had the same pale green, velvety leaves, which characterize the 
famous tobacco of Latakieh. 

We proceeded in a south-eastern direction into the ravine, 
which we ascended, following the water course. Large rounded 
masses of trap rock lay in its bed, and still further we came 
upon large perpendicular crags of greenstone, from ten to forty 
feet in height. In some places beds of a coarse conglomerate, 
which had frequently an appearance of sandstone, rested upon 
the trap. The forest was very dense, and from the moist, uno- 



KILLING A WILD BOAR. 403 

tuous nature of the soil, our progress was exceedingly toil- 
some. The further we ascended, the darker and deeper be- 
came the wood, and as the Otaheitan informed us we were now 
in the neighborhood of wild boars, we crept forward silently 
and cautiously. While we were resting on the top of a cliff, 
two of the party, who were in the rear, started a boar and shot 
at him, but unsuccessfully. After leaving the water course we 
climbed the side of the ravine by clinging to the roots of trees 
and the tough cordage of parasitic vines. The party became 
scattered, owing to the absence of any path, and the impossi- 
bility of seeing more than ten yards in any direction. Among 
the palms I noticed a variety with broad fan-leaves, and leaf- 
stems six to eight feet in length, the jagged edges of which 
wounded our hands. There was also a variety of the pandanus^ 
with a single straight trunk, from near the base of which pro- 
jected a number of shoots or props, which became roots after 
they reached the soil. There were frequently twenty or thirty 
of them, forming a pyramidal basis to the slender column, 
which rose about fifteen feet, crowned with its leafy capital. 

While halting on the top of the ridge for the rest of the 
party to come up, the dogs commenced barking in a ravine on 
the other side. Two of the officers started off at once, and in 
a short time we heard shots at a distance. We made for the 
sound, and after plunging through a frightful thicket of the 
horny-leaved pandanus, in the midst of which I found a wild 
boar's lair, reached the bed of a brook, where the hunters were 
gathered about a young boar. He was about a year old, and 
of a dark brownish-gray color, with a long snout, resembling 
the Chinese hog. We took out the liver and kidneys, and sus- 
pended the body to a tree, U be left until our return. In 



404 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

another half hour we had crossed the dividing ridge of the 
island, and began to descend the southern side. Through an 
opening in the foliage I caught a glimpse of the sea, and climbed 
a tree to obtain a look-out. I found that we were on the brow 
of a very steep ridge, about 1,500 feet in height, looking down 
upon a small bay, opening to the south-east. Beyond its south- 
ern promontory the sea was again visible, with the group of 
Bailly's Islands in the distance. The mountains descended in 
precipices to the water, so that access was impossible, except 
near the head of the bay, where two abrupt ravines, or rathei 
chasms, showed a speck of sandy beach at their meeting. 

The Otaheitan professed to know the way, and set out 
creeping slowly down the steep, we following, forcing our way 
on our hands and knees through almost impervious thickets, 
until a sudden light broke through the wilderness, and we 
found ourselves on the brink of a precipice, the height of which 
we could not then estimate, though I afterwards saw that it 
must be near two hundred feet. From its base the mountain 
sloped away so steeply to the brink of other precipices below, 
that we seemed to swing in the air, suspended over the great 
depth which intervened between us and the sea. My head 
reeled for a moment, as I found myself perched on such a giddy 
height, and either retreat or descent seemed impossible. The 
guide, it was evident, had taken us too far to the left, and it 
was necessary partly to retrace our steps, in order to regain a 
position which would enable us to avoid the precipice. We 
clung cautiously to the strong grass which grew on the brink, 
and thus crept along for about two hundred yards, over a place 
where the least impetus would have sent us headlong hundreds 
of feet below. On this part of the mountain I found a shrub 



GOING DOWN THE PRECIPICE. 405 

with a dark, glossy leaf, which diffused a powerful balsamic 
odor. Finally, attaining a point where the precipice ceased, 
we commenced going downward at the angle of about GC. 
The soil was so slippery, and the vines and horny leaves of the 
palms hung so low, that the best way of descending was to lie 
flat on one's back, and slide down until brought up by a thicket 
too dense to get through. 

With an infinite deal of labor, and at the risk of our necks, 
we at last reached the ravine, or chasm, and hoped that the 
worst of our toils were over. But the worst was yet to come. 
I can place implicit faith in Herman Melville's account of 
the precipices of Typee, after our own experience, which, in 
fact, bore a striking resemblance to his. The ravine descended 
by a succession of rocky steps from ten to forty and fifty feet 
in perpendicular height, down which we clambered with hands 
and feet, often trusting the soundness of our bones, if not our 
very lives, to the frail branch of a tree, or to the hold of a root 
dangling from the brink. As from the top of a tower, we 
looked on the beach, lying at our very feet, and seemingly to be 
reached by a single leap, though still far below. Down, down 
we went into the black depths of the chasm, in constant fear 
of reaching a wall which we could not pass, until at the junc- 
tion of another ravine, we came upon the hewn stump of a 
tree, a sign that others before us had penetrated the wilder- 
ness, and heard the roar of the surf near at hand. The seaman, 
Terry, who had accompanied me on the exploring trip through 
Loo-Choo, and myself, were considerably in advance of the 
rest of the party. Terry was a man after my own heart, for 
such an expedition. Nothing could daunt him, and no hard- 
ships could tire him out. We sat down on the beach, under an 



406 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

overhanging rock, and looked back on the steep down which 
we had clomb. When I saw it from below, and discerned the 
last of the party standing on the brink of one of the crags, 
showing us what our own position had been, I could scarcely 
believe our descent possible. 

The guides called the place "South-East Bay." They 
stated that it was frequently visited by whalers, for wood and 
water ; which accounts for the stump of the tree, and the pre- 
sence of a patch of tomatoes, which we found growing in a wild 
state, along the banks of the stream. The fruit was about the 
size of a cherry, and very fresh and palatable. When all had 
arrived, we built a fire under the eaves of the rocks, and while 
the dry drift-wood was burning to embers, took a bath in the 
sea. The water was deliciously cool, and the long, heavy swells 
rolled directly in from the Pacific and broke over our heads. 
We broiled the boar's liver on pieces of coral, and this, with a 
ship's ration of salt pork and biscuit, and a few handfuls of 
raw tomatoes, made us a most palatable repast. By the time 
we had sufficiently rested, and Mr. Heine had made a sketch of 
the bay, it was two o'clock, and I therefore broke up the camp 
and started homeward. 

The natives said that there was no other way of returning 
except the road by which we came. We all shrank from the 
idea of climbing that terrible path, but there was no help for 
it. Up we must go, and up we went, clinging for life to the 
roots of trees, or the sharp little corners of the rocks with one 
hand, while we clutched our carbines with the other. There 
was not a breath of air : the thermometer must have shown at 
least 90*^, and the toil was so severe that one of the party 
became ill, and lagged behind. We were obliged to halt every 



THE PARTY BEGINING TO FAG. 407 

five minutes, for two others also began to sliow signs of exhaus- 
tion, and were more than once on the point of giving out. But 
all things must have an end, and at length we reached the sum- 
mit ridge, whence the descent to the ravine where we had left 
the wild boar was comparatively easy, after what we had already 
gone through. The Otaheitan shouldered the boar, and we 
returned, with but one or two halts to rest the exhausted mem- 
bers of the party, to the native huts in the valley, where we 
arrived a little before six o'clock. One of the gentlemen was 
by this time so much spent that he hired the Otaheitan to carry 
him in a canoe round to the Kanaka settlement at the southern 
end of Port Lloyd, the rest of us taking a path which led 
thither by land. 

The evening was cloudy and rain began to fall, which 
hastened our departure. Ascending the same ravine by which 
we had reached the valley, as far as the taro patch, the Judge 
turned suddenly to the left and began climbing the slippery 
side of the mountain at an angle of about 50°. He declared 
that this was the usual road, but my eyes, although somewhat 
exercised in wood-craft, could not detect the least trace of a 
path. Under the thick clusters of sago palms was a dense un 
dergrowth of fern, in which we could gain no foothold, and 
were continually falling flat on our faces. The Judge himself 
began to be fagged by this time, and frequently proposed that 
we should rest. The others were in no wise averse to this, but 
I felt little fatigue from the labors of the day, and was so anx- 
ious to reach the Kanaka settlement before dark that I hurried 
them onward. After gaining the summit, the way was easier, 
and we met with occasional faint traces of a path Passing 
over an undulating tract for a mile or more, we came upon the 



408 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

westefn slope of the island, overlooking Southern Head, and 
the entrance to Port Lloyd. I now saw that a deep, picturesque 
bight made in below the Head to the mouth of the valley wc 
had left, and that the shortest and most usual route of the na- 
tives between the two settlements, was by sea. The sides of 
the hills we traversed were covered with a deep, coarse grass, 
waist-high, and so thick that we fairly waded through it. It 
was a fortunate circumstance for us that there are no venom- 
ous reptiles on the island. 

I was in advance, the others being scattered along the side 
of the hill, when I happened to notice that one of the party 
was missing. I sent back the coolie, and then the Judge, and 
finally ordered a halt, while I returned to look for him. After 
calling and searching for some time without effect, he was at 
last found lying in the bottom of a glen, asleep, as he stated. 
He stumbled along with us for a short time, when he tumbled 
into the grass, declaring that he was utterly exhausted, and 
would remain there all night. Finding that we could not get 
him to go forward, we picked him up by main force, and carried 
him to the summit of the hill, where I left a man in charge of 
him while we hastened down, in order to gain the flag-staff 
above the Kanaka settlement, and fire a volley to bring a boat 
off for us. We plunged through the cane-fields, stumbled up the 
hill, and found ourselves on a high cliff, overlooking the bay. 
The big hull of the Susquehanna was barely visible in the 
darkness. We fired half a dozen volleys, when we hearji the 
report of musketry from the base of the Paps, at the head of 
the bay. It was, as we conjectured, the party of Dr. Fahs, 
signalizing like ourselves for a boat. At length, fearful lest 
our signal should not have been heard, I sent the marine in a 



RETURN TO THE VESSEL. 409 

canoe to bring a boat. He met the first cutter half way, but 
the tide being out, she was obliged to anchor off the reef in 
front of the settlement, and send the canoe to take us in small 
companies. 

"We waited half an hour for our missing comrade, and finally 
reached the ship's side about 10 o'clock weary and famished. 
Though I suffered less, I believe, than most of the others it was 
certainly the hardest day's work of my life. 

18 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

VOYAGE TO JAPAN AND RECEPTION THERE. 

Eeturn to L<io-Choo — Mails— Departure for Japan— The Island of Ohosima— Th« 
Japanese Coast — The Headland of Idzu— Precautionary Measures— Cape Sag&mi — 
The Bay of Yedo — Approach to Uraga— A Hint— The Squadron Halts — Japanese 
Boats — A Talk at the Gangway — The Yice Governor of Uraga — His Reception — 
The Boats Repulsed — Japanese Boatmen — Watch-fires — Yezaimon, GoTernor of 
Uraga — Consultations — An Express to Yedo — The Emperor appoints a Commissionei 
—Permission to Land — Skilful Negotiations — Scenery of the Bay— The Fortifica- 
tions—The Peak of Fusi-Yamma— Canvas Defences— A Surveying Party— Sounding 
along Shore— Forts and Soldiers— Threatened Collision— A Second Survey— A Mi- 
rage — Warlike Appearances— Lieut. Bent's Encounter with Forty-five Japanese 
Boats— Result of the Survey. 

On our return to Loo-Choo, where we arrived on the 24th of 
June, we found the Plymouth in the harbor. She had left 
Shanghai in comparative quiet, and with no present apprehen- 
sion of an attack. She was most welcome, on account of hav- 
ing brought the mails for the squadron. After having been 
seven months without news from home, the delight with which 
I received a large package of letters can only be comprehended 
by those who have had similar experiences. As all the vessels 
composing the squadron at that time were now at the rendez- 
vous, immediate preparations were made for our departure for 
Japan. Owing to the foresight with which the vessels had 
been supplied, little was needed except a stock of fresh provi- 



THE JAPANESE COAST. 411 

Bions, wliich the Loo-Choo anthorities, after some delay and 
equivocation, furnished us at double the ordinary price. 

The squadron, consisting of the Susquehanna (flag-ship), 
Mississippi, Plymouth and Saratoga — the two sloops of war 
being taken in tow by the two steamers — sailed from the har- 
bor of Napa-Kiang, on the 2d of July. On the night of the 
3d and morning of the 4th, we passed the large island of Oho- 
sima, part of the Kingdom of Loo-Choo. This island, which 
has been known to the Dutch, through the Japanese charts, 
and was seen by the French Admiral Cecille in 1846, is not 
found on English charts. The U S. ship Preble, in 1849, 
supposed she had made the first discovery of it, and gave it the 
name of " Preble Island." It has never been visited by a 
foreign vessel. It is thirty or forty miles long, mountainous, 
and thickly inhabited. After passing it we had very sultry 
weather, until we reached Japan — the thermometer standing 
at 84^ at night, and 88^ to 90° at noon, in the coolest place 
on board. 

At daybreak, on the morning of July 8, we first made land, 
which proved to be Cape Idzu, a lofty headland on the coast of 
Niphon, not far south of the entrance of the great Bay of Yedo. 
The Brocken and Vulcan Islands were in sight on our right. 
After passing Kock Island, we stood in nearer to the shore, 
which loomed up grandly through the hazy atmosphere. The 
promontory of Idzu is a group of mountains, rising to the height 
of five or six thousand feet, their summits scarred with slides, 
and their sides mostly covered with forests, though here and 
there we could discern patches of cultivated land. There were 
a number of fishing junks off the coast, some of which put back 
again as we approached. The wind was ahead, we had all saila 



412 INDIA, CHINA, 

furled and the yards squared, and the sight of our two im- 
mense steamers — the first that ever entered Japanese waters — 
dashing along at the rate of nine knots an hour, must have 
struck the natives with the utmost astonishment. 

Leaving the mountains of Idzu behind us, we stood across 
the mouth of the Bay of Kowadzu (as the southern half of the 
bifurcate Bay of Yedo is called), toward Cape Sagami at the 
extremity of the promontory which divides the two. The noon 
observation gave lat. 84° bl' N. and soon afterwards Cape 
Sagami came in sight. "We lay to while the Captains of the 
Mississippi, Plymouth and Saratoga came on board, to receive 
instructions, and then resumed our course. The decks were 
cleared for action, the guns shotted, the small arms put in 
complete order, and every precaution taken, in case we should 
meet with a hostile reception. Near Cape Sagami we descried 
a large town, and as we came within two miles of the shore, a 
number of junks, amounting to twelve or fifteen, put oflf, with 
the evident intention of visiting us. Each one bore a large 
banner, upon which characters were inscribed. The rapidity 
of our progress, against the wind, soon left them behind, no 
doubt completely nonplussed as to the invisible power which 
bore us away from them. The Bay now began to be thickly 
studded with fishing smacks, with here and there a large 
junk. 

The shores of Sagami are exceedingly picturesque and 
beautifal. They rise in abrupt bluffs, two hundred feet in 
height, gashed with narrow dells of the brightest verdure, 
which slope steeply down to the water, while the country be- 
hind rises in undulating hills, displaying a charming alterna- 
tion of groves and cultivated fields. In the distance rose 



JAPAXESE BOATS. 413 

moTUitain ranges, receding behind each other until the vapor 
hid their farthest snmmits. The eastern coast, belonging 
to the proTince of Awa, now came in sight ahead of us, for 
we were entering the narrowest part of the Bay, leading to the 
npper Bay of Yedo. The distance from shore to shore here 
varies from five to eight miles, but afterwards expands to 
twelve or fifteen. 

We kept directly up the Bav, and in half an hour after 
doubling Cape Sagami saw before us a bold promontory mak- 
ing out from the western coast, at the entrance of the Upper 
Bay. Within it was the Bight of Uraga, and we could plainly 
see the town of the same name at the head of it The Ply- 
mouth and Saratoga were cast off, and we advanced slowly, 
sounding as we went, until we had advanced more than a mile 
beyond the point reached by the Columbus and the 3Iorrison. 
We were about a mile and a half from the promontory, when 
two discharges of cannon were heard fit)m a battery at its ex- 
tremity, and inmiediately afterwards a light ball of smoke in 
the air showed that a shell had heen thrown up. An order 
was im mediately given to let go the anchor, but as the lead still 
showed 25 fathoms, the steamer's head was put in toward the 
shore, and in a few minutes the anchor was dropped. 

Another shell was fired after we came to anchor, and four 
or five boats filled with Japanese approached us. The rowers, 
who were all tall, athletic men, naked save a cloth around the 
loins, shouted lustily as they sculled with all their strength 
toward us. The boats were of unpainted wood, very sharp in 
the bows, carrying their greatest breadth of beam well aft, and 
were propelled with great rapidity. The resemblance of their 
model to that of the yacht America, strcck every body on 



414 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

board". In the stern of eacli was a small flag, with three hori- 
zontal stripes, the central one black and the other white. In 
each were several persons, who, by their dress and the two 
swords stuck in their belts, appeared to be men of authority. 

The first boat came alongside, and oi^e of the two-sworded 
individuals made signs for the gangway to be let down. Thia 
was refused, but Mr. Wells Williams, the Interpreter, and Mr. 
Portman, the Commodore's clerk (who was a native of Holland), 
went to the ship's side to state that nobody would be received 
on board, except the first in rank at Uraga. The conversa- 
tion was carried on principally in Dutch, which the interpre- 
ter spoke very well. He asked at once if we were not Ameri- 
cans, and by his manner of asking showed that our coming had 
been anticipated. He was told that the Commander of the 
squadron was an officer of very high rank in the United States, 
and could only communicate with the first in rank on shore. 
After a long parley, the Vice-Governor of Uraga, who was in 
the boat, was allowed to come on board with the Interpreter, 
and confer with Lieut. Contee, the Flag Lieutenant. The Jap- 
anese official, a fiery little fellow, was much exasperated at 
being kept in waiting, but soon moderated his tone. He was 
told that we came as friends, upon a peaceable mission ; that 
we should not go to Nangasaki, as he proposed, and that it was 
insulting to our President and his special minister to propose 
it. He was told, moreover, that the Japanese must not commu- 
nicate with any other vessel than the flag-ship, and that no boats 
must approach us during the night. An attempt to surround 
us with a cordon of boats, as in the case of the Columbus and 
Vincennes, would lead to very serious consequences. They had 
with them an official notice, written in French, Dutch and Eng- 



JAPANESE BOATS WARNED OFF. 415 

lish, and intended as a general warning to all foreign vessels, 
directing them to go no further, to remain out at sea, and send 
word ashore, why they came and what they wanted. This 
Lieut. Contee declined to see or ackowledge in any way. The 
same notice was taken to the Plymouth by another boat, which 
was at once ordered off. 

Commodore Perry had evidently made up his mind from the 
first not to submit to the surveillance of boats. The dignified 
and decided stand he took produced an immediate impression 
upon the Japanese. They were convinced that he was in ear- 
nest, and that all the tricks and delays with which they are in 
the habit of wheedling foreign visitors would be used in vain. 
Several boats having followed the first one, and begun to collect 
round us, the Vice-Governor was told that if they did not 
return at once, they would be fired into. One of them went to 
the Mississippi ; and after being repulsed from the gangway, 
pulled forward to the bows, where some of the crew tried to 
climb on board. A company of boarders was immediately 
called away, and the bristling array of pikes and cutlasses over 
the vessel's side caused the Japanese to retreat in great haste. 
Thenceforth, all the Japanese boats gave us a wide berth, and 
during the whole of our stay, none approached us except those 
containing the officials who were concerned in the negotiations. 
I may here remark that our presence did not seem to disturb, 
in the least, the coastiug trade which finds its focus in Yedo. 
Without counting the hundreds of small boats and fishing 
smacks, between sixty and seventy large junks daily passed up 
and down the bay, on their way to and from Y^edo. The Japa- 
nese boatmen were tall, handsomely formed men, with vigorous 
and symmetrical bodies, and a hardy, manly expression of coun- 



416 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

tenance*. As the air grew fresher towards evening, they put on 
a sort of loose gown, with wide, hanging sleeves. As the crew 
of each boat were all attired alike, the dress appeared to be a 
uniform, denoting that they were in Government service. The 
most of them had blue gowns, with white stripes on the sleeves, 
meeting on the shoulder, so as to form a triangular junction, 
and a crest, or coat-of-arms, upon the back. Others had gowns 
of red and white stripes, with a black lozenge upon the back. 
Some wore upon their heads a cap made of bamboo splints, 
resembling a broad, shallow basin inverted, but the greater part 
had their heads bare, the top and crown shaved, and the hair 
from the back and sides brought up and fastened in a small 
knot, through which a short metal pin was thrust. The officers 
wore light and beautifully lacquered hats to protect them from 
the sun, with a gilded coat-of-arms upon the front part. In 
most of the boats I noticed a tall spear, with a lacquered sheath 
for the head, resembling a number or character, and apparently 
referring to the rank of the officer on board. 

After dark, watch-fires began to blaze along the shore, both 
from the beach and from the summits of the hills, chiefly on the 
western side of the bay. At the same time we heard, at regular 
intervals, the sound of a deep-toned bell. It had a very sweety 
rich tone, and from the distinctness with which its long rever- 
berations reached us, must have been of large size. A double 
night-watch was established during our stay, and no officers 
except the Purser and Surgeons were exempt from serving. 
But the nights were quiet and peaceful, and it never fell to my 
lot to report a suspicious appearance of any kind. 

The next morning, Yezaimon, the Governor of Uraga, and 
the highest authority on shore, came ofi", attended by two 



UNEXPECTED CONCESSIONS, 417 

interpreters, who gave their names as Tatsonoske and Tokosh- 
iuro. He was received by Commanders Buchanan and Adams, 
and Lieut. Contee. He was a noble of the second rank ; his 
robe was of the richest silken tissue, embroidered with gold 
and silver in a pattern resembling peacock feathers. The object 
of his coming, I believe, was to declare his inability to act, not 
having the requisite authority without instructions from Yedo. 
At any rate, it was understood that an express would be sent 
to the Capital immediately, and the Commodore gave him until 
Tuesday noon to have the answer ready. Sunday passed over 
without any visit, but on Monday there was an informal one. 
From Tuesday until Wednesday noon, Yezaimon came off 
three times, remaining from two to three hours each time. 
The result of all these conferences was, that the Emperor had 
specially appointed one of the Chief Counsellors of the Empire 
to proceed to Uraga, and receive from Commodore Perry the 
letter of the President of the United States, which the Com- 
modore was allowed to land and deliver on shore. This prompt 
and unlooked-for concession astonished us all, and I am con- 
vinced it was owing entirely to the decided stand the Commo- 
dore took during the early negotiations. We had obtained in 
four days, without subjecting ourselves to a single observance 
of Japanese law, what the Russian embassy under Resanoff 
failed to accomplish in six months, after a degrading subser- 
vience to ridiculous demands. From what I know of the nego- 
tiations, I must say that they were admirably conducted. 
The Japanese officials were treated in such a polite and 
friendly manner as to win their good will, while not a single 
point to which we attached any importance, was yielded. 
There was a mixture of firmness, dignity and fearlessness on 
18* 



418 INDIA, eniNA, and japan. 

our side, against which their artful and dissimulating policy 
was powerless. To this, and to our material strength, I at- 
tribute the fact of our reception having been so different from 
that of other embassies, as almost to make us doubt the truth 
of the accounts we had read. 

From our anchorage off Uraga, we enjoyed a charming 
panorama of the bay. It far surpassed my preconceived ideas 
of Japanese scenery. The western shore is bold and steep, 
running here and there into lofty bluffs of light-gray rock, but 
the greater part of it is covered with turf, copsewood and scat- 
tered groves of trees, all of the brightest and freshest green. 
From Uraga to another and shallower bight, which makes in 
nearly two miles below, the shore is less abrupt, and shows 
more signs of cultivation. The hills behind, though not above 
500 feet in height, are beautifully undulating in their outlines, 
and dotted with groves of pine and other trees. From Uraga 
to the end of the promontory — a distance of a mile and a 
quarter — there is an almost unbroken line of villages. The 
houses are of wood, with sharp roofs, some pointed in the 
Chinese style, some square and pyramidal. A few were painted 
white, but the greater number were unpaiuted and weather- 
beaten. At least a hundred small craft, with a number of 
junks, lay in the harbor of Uraga, and thence to the headland, 
there were two hundred boats, lying close in-shore. 

I examined the fortij&cations frequently and carefully, 
through a glass, and found that their strength had been greatly 
exaggerated. Two of them appeared to have been recently 
made, and on a bluff, half enclosing the little harbor of Uraga 
on the east, there was another, still in the course of construc- 
tion. Between this and the headland there were three bat- 



CANVAS FORTIFICATIONS. - 419 

teries, and at the extremity one, making five in ail. The em- 
brasures were so large, that from our position a good marks- 
man might in a short time have dislodged every one of their 
guns. The chief post was the central battery, near which was 
a village, and several buildings of large size, apparently arsenals 
or barracks. 

Every morning and evening, when the air was clear, we 
had a distinct view of the famous volcanic peak of Fusi- Yam- 
ma, rising in the western heaven, high above the hills, and 
sixty miles away. In the evenings its solitary cone, of a pale 
violet hue, was defined with great distinctness against the rosy 
flush of sunset, but in the morning, when the light fell full 
upon it, we could see the sears of old eruptions, and the cold 
ravines of snow on its northern side. It is the highest moun- 
tain in Japan, and estimated to be twelve or thirteen thousand 
feet above the sea-level. 

On the morning after our arrival, the Japanese put up a 
false battery of black canvas, about a hundred yards in length, 
on the shore south of Urdga. There was no appearance of 
guns, but with a glass I saw two or three companies of soldiers, 
in scarlet uniform, riding through the groves in the rear. In 
most of tlie batteries they also erected canvas screens behind 
the embrasures — with what object it was difficult to conceive. 
These diversions they repeated so often during our stay, that 
at last we ceased to regard them ; but it was amusing to hear 
some of our old quarter-masters now and then gravely report 
to Captain Buchanan : " Another dungaree fort thrown up, 



sir ! 



I" 



On Saturday morning a surveying expedition, consisting 
of one boat from each ship, under the charge of Lieut. Bent, 



420 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

of the Missisippi, was sent for the purpose of sounding up the 
bay. The other officers were Lieut. Guest, of the Susquehanna, 
Lieut. Balch, of the Plymouth, and Mr. Madigan, Master of 
the Saratoga. The boats carried, in addition to the usual en- 
sign, a white flag at the bow, and were fully manned with 
armed seamen. They ran up the bay to a distance of about 
four miles, and found every where from thirty to forty-three 
fathoms of water. The recall was then hoisted, and a signal 
gun fired, to bring them back. In the afternoon they sounded 
around the bight of Uraga, keeping about a cable's length from 
the shore. They found five fathoms of water at this distance, 
though nearer to the beach there were occasional reefs. Mr. 
Heine, the artist, obtained a panoramic sketch of the shore, 
with the batteries, villages, and other objects in detail. On 
approaching the forts, the soldiers at first came out, armed with 
matchlocks, but as the boats advanced nearer, they retired 
within the walls. The forts were all of very rude and imperfect 
construction, and all together only mounted fourteen guns, 
none of which were larger than nine-pounders. The whole 
number of soldiers seen was about four hundred, a considerable 
portion of whom were armed with spears. Their caps and 
shields were lacquered, and glittered in the sun like polished 
armor. The carriages of the guns were also lacquered. The 
embrasures were so wide that the guns were wholly unpro- 
tected, while they were so stationed that the forts could be 
stormed from either side, with very little risk to the assaulting 
party. The parapets were of earth, and about twelve feet in 
thickness, and the barracks in the rear were of wood. Indeed, 
the whole amount of the Japanese defences appeared laughable, 
after all the extravaffant stories we had heard. 



EXPLORING THE BAY. 421 

Mr Madigan approached, at one place, to within a hundred 
yards of the shore. Three oflScial personages were standing 
upon a bank of earth, when some one in the boat raised a spy- 
glass to get a nearer view of them. No sooner did they be 
hold the glittering tube pointed at them than they scrambled 
down as quickly as possible, and concealed themselves. There 
were three boat-loads of soldiers near the shore, who made signs 
to him to keep off, but he answered them by pointing out the 
way he intended to go. Thereupon they put off, and bore down 
upon him so rapidly, that he at first thought they intended to 
run into him, and ordered his men to trail their oars and put 
caps on their carbines. The boats stopped at once, and made 
no attempt to interfere with the cutter's course. 

On Monday morning the same surveying party was again 
dispatched up the bay, followed by the Mississippi, which was 
designed to protect them, and tow them back in the evening. 
Lieut. Bent's boat was in advance, and as he passed the pro- 
montory of Uraga, three Japanese boats put out to meet him. 
The oflS.cers in them made signs to return, but he kept steadily 
on his way. We watched the progress of our boats with 
glasses, but at the distance of four miles, they, with the Mis- 
sissippi, passed out of sight behind the point. 

Several Government boats, fully manned, were seen from 
time to time, pulling across the bay, in the direction of the 
surveying fleet, but no prominent movement occurred until 
noon. At this time the distant shores were so lifted by the 
affect of a mirage, that we saw land extending entirely around 
'the head of the bay, where previously none had been visible. 
The eastern shore was remarkably distinct, and for the first 
time we observed a low, sandy promontory stretching out into 



422 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

the bajj^ye or six miles to the north of us. Near the middle 
of it rose a low mound, on which, by the aid of a glass, we 
could discern a number of soldiers, clustered around some 
white objects, which I took to be tents. In a short time 
several hundred men were marched down to the beach, where 
they formed a line nearly half a mile in length. At least fifty 
banners, of various colors and devices, were planted along the 
line. A number of Government boats, similar to those which 
had visited us, were drawn up on the beach. The greater part 
of the soldiers embarked in the boats, which put off, one after 
another, and made directly across the bay. We saw nothing 
more until 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when the Mississippi 
made her appearance, at a distance of ten miles. The head- 
land of Uraga was crowded with soldiers, who came out to see 
her pass. 

From some of the officers who were of the party, I learned 
the following particulars : In ascending the bay, they were 
constantly met by Grovernment boats, the officers in which 
urged them, by signs, to return. They kept on their course, 
however, until Mr. Bent endeavored to proceed to the head of 
a deep bay on the western coast. Here he was met by forty- 
five Japanese boats, which placed themselves in front of him, 
to intercept his progress. He ordered his men to lay on their 
oars and fix bayonets to their muskets, but this produced no 
impression. As the Mississippi was more than two miles 
astern, he dispatched one of the boats to summon her, and then, 
ordering half his men to pull directly towards the J?.panese 
boats, while the other half held their arms in readiness, he 
steadily approached their line. They made signs and threaten- 
ing gestures, to which he paid no heed, and as this cutter al- 



423 



mo^t touched their oars, they gave way, overawed by what 
must have seemed to them an insane determination. The ap- 
proach of the Mississippi soon dispersed the whole of them. 

The boats every where obtained deep soundings, with a 
bottom of soft mud. The furthest point reached was ten or 
twelve miles from our anchorage. The shores were bold and 
steep, with mountains in the background, and the bay (to 
which Lieut. Bent gave the name of Perry's Bay) offered a 
secure and commodious anchorage. On her return, the Missis- 
sippi came down the centre of the bay, finding every where 
abundance of water. 



CHAPTER XXXiy. 

THE FIRST LANDING IN JAPAN- 

The Day of Landing — Preparations on Shore — The Bight of Gori-hama— Japanese 
Military Display — Arrival of the Governors — Their Official Dresses — Precautions 
on Board — The Procession of Boats— An Inspiring Scene — The Landing— Numbers 
of the Escort— The Japanese Troops — The Commodore's Landing— March to the 
House of Eeception — Japanese Body-Guard — The Hall of Audience — Two Japanese 
Princes — Delivery of the President's Letter— An Official Conversation — Eeturn to 
the Squadron. 

It was finally arranged with the Japanese officials, that the 
President's letter should be delivered on Thursday morning, 
July 14, at the town of Gori-hama, two miles south of Uraga. 
The morning was heavy and dark before sunrise, but soon 
afterwards cleared off brilliantly. As soon as the shore could 
be distinguished, it was seen that the principal battery on the 
promontory of Urdga had been greaty amplified and adorned 
% by screens of cotton canvas, in honor of the occasion. On the 
hill above, among the trees, there were two small forts, or rather 
pavilions, of the same material. The canvas was stretched 
along a row of stakes so as to form a species of panelling, on 
which the Imperial coat-of-arms was painted, alternating with 
other devices. Behind the canvas we could see that numerous 
companies of soldiers were drawn up in different costume from 



JAPANESE MILITARY DISPLAY. 425 

that which they usually wore. Their arms were bare, and the 
body covered with a short tuijic of a dark-brown, blue or pur- 
ple color, bound with a girdle at the waist. 

About eight o'clock the anchors were lifted, and the 
Susquehanna and Mississippi moved slowly down the Bay, 
leaving the Plymouth and Saratoga. We soon saw two boats 
bearing the Government flag pulling abreast of us, but further 
in shore, and accompanied by four other boats with red ban- 
ners, probably containing a military escort. As the bight 
opened behind the promontory, we saw a long line of canvas 
walls, covered with the Imperial crest, stretching quite around 
the head of the bight. In front were files of soldiers, standing 
motionless on the sandy beach. A multitude of banners of va- 
rious brilliant colors gleamed in the sun. Near the centre of 
the crescent formed by the troops, were planted nine tall 
standards — ^four on one side and five on the other — from which 
broad scarlet pennons hung to the ground. In the rear of 
these three new pyramidal roofs showed that a house had 
been prepared expressly for the Commodore's reception. On 
the right, upwards of fifty or sixty boats were drawn up in a 
line parallel to the beach, each having a red flag at its stern. 
From the head of the bight a narrow valley extended inland 
between luxuriantly wooded hills. On the left side was a pic- 
turesque little town, the name of which the Japanese informed"^ 
us, was Gori-hama. The place was undoubtedly chosen, both 
on account of its remoteness from Uraga, which is a port of 
customs, and the facility which it afi"orded to the Japanese for 
the exhibition of a large military force — a measure dictated 
alike by their native caution, and the love of display for which 
they are noted. 



426 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

Tlifi^ anchor was no sooner down, than the two Goveirnment 
boats sculled alongside, and Yezaimon, with the Interpreters, 
Tatsonoske and Tokoshiuro, came on board. The second boat 
contained the Deputy Governor, Saboroske, and an attendant offi- 
cer. They were accommodated with seats on the quarter-deck 
until all our preparations for landing were completed. They 
were dressed, as they had hinted the day previous, in official 
garments of rich silk brocade, bordered with velvet. The 
gowns differed little in form from those they ordinarily wore, 
but were elaborately embroidered, and displayed a greater va- 
riety of gay colors than taste in their disposal. Saboroske had 
a pair of short and very wide pantaloons, resembHng a petti- 
coat with a seam up the middle, below which appeared his bare 
legs, and black woollen socks, with an effect rather comical 
than otherwise. His shoulders contained lines of ornament in 
gold thread. All the officers wore their crest, or coat-of-arms, 
embroidered upon the back, sleeves and breasts of their gar- 
ments. 

The boats of the Mississippi, Plymouth and Saratoga, were 
alongside in less than half an hour after our anchor dropped, 
and preparations were made for leaving at once. Both steam- 
ers lay with their broadsides to the shore, and the decks were 
cleared, the guns primed and pointed, ready for action, in case 
of treachery. Commanders Kelly and Lee remained on board 
their respective ships, in order to act in case of necessity. 
The morning was very bright and clear, and the fifteen laun- 
ches and cutters, containing the officers, seamen, marines, and 
bandsmen, presented a brilliant appearance, as they clustered 
around our starboard gangway. Commander Buchanan took 
the lead, in his barge, with one of the Japanese Government 



THE LANDING. 427 

boats on each side. Merrily as the oars of our men dipped the 
waves, it required their utmost to keep pace with the athletic 
scullers of Japan. The other American boats followed nearly 
in line, and the van of the procession was more than half-way 
to the shore when the guns of the Susquehanna announced the 
Commodore's departure. The gleam of arms, the picturesque 
mingling of blue and white, in the uniforms, and the sparkling 
of the waves under the steady strokes of the oarsmen, com- 
bined to form a splendid picture, set off as it was by the back- 
ground of rich green hills, and the long line of soldiery and 
banners on the beach. All were excited by the occasion, and 
the men seemed to be as much elated in spirits as those who 
had a more prominent part in the proceedings. We all felt, 
that as being the first instance since the expulsion of the Por- 
tuguese from Japan, when a foreign Ambassador had been 
officially received on Japanese soil, it was a memorable event 
in the history of both countries, and that, if not an augury of 
the future and complete success of the Expedition, it was at 
least a commencement more auspicious than we had ventured 
to anticipate. 

Ah impromptu jetty composed of bags of sand, had been 
thrown up for the occasion near the centre of the crescent- 
shaped beach at the head of the bight. Capt. Buchanan, who 
had command of the party, was the first to leap ashore. The 
remaining boats crowded rapidly in beside the jetty, landed as 
many of their crews as had been detailed for the escort on 
shore, and then pulled off about fifty yards. The seamen and 
marines were formed into a line as soon as they were landed, 
and presented a compact and imposing file along the beach. 
The officers commanding detachments were Commanders Bu. 



428 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

clianan and Walker, and Lieuts. Grillis and Taylor. The 
bodies of seamen were in immediate charge of Lieut. Duer, of 
the Susquehanna ; Lieut. Morris, of the Mississippi; Lieut. Mat- 
thews of the Plymouth, and Passed Midshipman Scott, of the 
Saratoga. Including the other officers, there were upwards of 
320 persons landed, while the Japanese troops amounted, as they 
themselves informed us, to five thousand. We had 112 marines, 
about 120 seamen, 50 officers, and 30 or 40 musicians. About 
a hundred yards from the beach stood the foremost files of the 
Japanese, in somewhat loose and straggling order. Their front 
occupied the whole beach, their right flank resting on the vil- 
lage of G-ori-hama, and their left against a steep hill which 
bounded the bight on the northern side. The greater part 
were stationed behind the canvas screens, and from the num- 
bers, crowded together in the rear, some of the officers estima- 
ted their force at nearer ten than five thousand men. Those 
in the front rank were armed with swords, spears and match- 
locks, and their uniform differed little from the usual Japanese 
costume. There were a number of horses, of a breed larger 
and much superior to the Chinese, and m the background we 
saw a body of cavalry. On the slope of the hill near the vil- 
lage, a great number of natives, many of whom were women, 
had collected, out of curiosity to witness the event. 

A salute was fired from the Susquehanna, as the Commo- 
dore left, acc«jfmpanied by his staff. Commander Adams, and 
Lieut. Contee, and the men had scarcely been formed into line 
before his barge approached the shore. The officers compos- 
ing the Commodore's escort formed a double line from the 
jetty, and as he passed between them fell into proper order be- 
hiad him. He was received with the customary honors, and 



JAPANESE BODY-GUARD. 429 

the procession inimediately started for the place of reception. 
A stalwart boatswain's mate was selected to hear the broad 
pennant of the Commodore, supported by two very tall and 
powerful negro seamen, completely armed. Behind these fol- 
lowed two sailor boys, bearing the letter of the President and 
the Commodore's letter of credence, in their sumptuous boxes, 
wrapped in scarlet cloth. Then came the Commodore himself, 
with his staff and escort of officers. The marine force, a fine, 
athletic body of men, commanded by Maj. Zeilin, with a de- 
tachment from the Mississippi, under Capt. Slack, led the way, 
and the corps of seamen from all the ships brought up the 
rear. 

The house of reception was directly in front of the landing, 
but an intervening screen rendered a slight detour necessary 
in order to reach the entrance ; and Maj. Zeilin made the most 
of this circumstance, in order to display our forces to the 
Japanese. There certainly was a marked contrast between 
the regular, compact files of our njen, and their vigorous, mus- 
cular figures, and the straggling ranks of the mild, effeminate- 
featured Japanese. In front of the house were two old brass 
four-pounders, apparently of Spanish manufacture, and on each 
side stood a company of soldiers, who belonged either to the 
Imperial forces, or to the body-guard of the Prince. Those on 
the left wore a uniform somewhat resembling the modern 
Egyptian dress. It was of a dark gray color, having full 
trowsers, gathered below the knees, a broad sash around the 
waist, and a white cloth, similar to a turban, bound upon the 
head. They were armed with the old Tower muskets, which 
are to be found in every part of the world, with flint locks and 
bayonets. Those on the right wore a different uniform, ex- 



430 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

hibiting a mixture of dull brown and yellow in its colors, and 
carried matchlocks of an antique fashion. 

Yezaimon and the Interpreters preceded ns, in order to show 
the way. The distance from the jetty to the door of the build- 
ing was so short, that little opportunity was given me for 
noticing minutely the appearance of the Japanese, or the order 
of their array. The building into which the Commodore and 
suite were ushered was small, and appeared to have been erected 
in haste. The timbers were of pine wood, and numbered, as 
if they had been brought from some other place. The first 
apartment, which was about forty feet square, was of canvas, 
with an awning of the same, of a white ground, with the Im- 
perial arms emblazoned on it in places. The floor was covered 
with white cotton cloth, with a pathway of red felt, or some 
similar substance, leading across the room to a raised inn^r 
apartment, which was wholly carpeted with it. This apartment, 
the front of which was entirely open, so that it corresponded 
precisely to the diwan in Turkish houses, was hung with fine 
cloth, containing the Imperial arms, in white, on a ground of 
violet. On the right hand was a row of arm-chairs, sufficient 
in number for the Commodore and his staff, while on the op- 
posite side sat the Prince who had been appointed to receive 
the President's letter, with another official of similar rank. 
Their names were given by the Interpreter as " Toda Idzij-no- 
Kami," Toda, Prince of Idzu, and " Ido Iwami-no-Kami," Ido, 
Prince of Iwami. The Prince of Idzu was a man of about fifty, 
with mild, regular features, an ample brow, and an intelligent, 
reflective expression. He was dressed with great richness, 
in heavy robes of .silken ti.ssue, wrought into elaborate orna- 
ments with gold and silver thread. The Prince of Iwami was 



AN OFFICIAL CONVERSATION. 431 

at least fifteen years older, and dressed witli nearly eqnal 
splendor. His face was wrinkled with age, and exhibited 
neither the intelligence nor the benignity of his associate. 
They both rose and bowed gravely as the Commodore entered, 
but immediately resumed their seats, and remained as silent 
and passive as statues during the interview. 

At the head of the room was a large scarlet-lacquered box, 
with brazen feet, beside which Yezaimon and the Interpreter, 
Tatsonoske, knelt. The latter then asked whether the letters 
were ready to be delivered, stating that the Prince was ready 
to receive them. The boxes were brought in, opened, so that 
the writing and the heavy golden seals were displayed, and 
placed upon the scarlet chest. The Prince of Iwami then 
handed to the Interpreter, who gave it to the Commodore, 
an official receipt, in Japanese, and at the same time the Inter- 
preter added a Dutch translation. The Commodore remarked 
that he would sail in a few days for Loo-Choo and Canton, and 
if the Japanese Government wished to send any dispatches to 
those places he would be happy to take them. Without ma- 
king any direct reply, the Interpreter asked : " When will 
you come again ? " The Commodore answered, " As I sup- 
pose it will take some time to deliberate upon the letter of the 
President, I shall not wait now, but will return in a few 
months to receive the answer." He also spoke of the revolution 
in China, and the Interpreter asked the cause of it, without 
translating the communication to the Prince. He then in- 
quired when the ships would return again, to which the Com- 
modore replied that they would probably be there in April or 
May. "All four of them? "he asked. "All of them," 
answered the Commodore, " and probably more. This is but a 



432 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

portion of the squadron." No further conversation took place. 
The letters having been formally delivered and received, the 
Commodore took his leave, while the two Princes, who had 
fuljBUed to the letter their instructions not to speak, rose and 
remained standing until he had retired from their presence. 

The return to the boats was made in the same order, the 
bands playing " Hail Columbia " and " Yankee Doodle," with 
more spirit than ever before, and few of those present, I ven- 
ture to say, ever heard our national airs with more pride and 
pleasure. Yezaimon, Saboroske, and the two Interpreters at- 
tended the Commodore to the boat, and as the embarkation of 
the different boats' crews occupied some time, on account of 
the smallness of the jetty, several of the Japanese soldiers 
profited by the delay to come down and examine us more close- 
ly. Many of our men strayed along the beach, picking up 
shells and pebbles as mementoes of the visit. In less than 
twenty minutes, however, all were embarked, and we returned 
to the ships, accompanied by the two Japanese boats which had 
piloted us to the shore. Before twelve o'clock the anchors 
were lifted, and both vessels were under way on a cruise up 
the bay 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

THE UPPER BAY OF YEDO. 

The Japanese Officers on Board— Their Manners— Their Dislike to the Chinese— Their 
Swords — Their Curiosity— Passing up the Bay— Beauty of the Scenery —"Perry's 
Bay " — Junks bound for Yedo — Another Visit— Further Surveys — The Natives — 
An Excursion towards Yedo — Extent and Capacity of the Upper Bay — Change of 
Anchorage— The Surveys Proceed— Interchange of Presents— A Dilemma— Final 
Satisfaction— Farewell of the Japanese Officials— Commodore Perry's Diplomacy — 
Departure from Japan — ^A Multitude of Boats — Oosima — The Islands off the Bay — 
Discoveries — Fwrmation of the Group— We Sail for Ohosima— A Typhoon— Eeturn 
to Loo-Choo— The Second Visit to Japan. 

Yezaimon, Saboroske, and the Interpreters accepted an invi- 
tation to remain on board until we readied Uraga, and have 
their boats towed at our stern. This gave them a chance of 
seeing the steam engine in operation, for which they had ex- 
pressed a great desire. They were conducted over the ship 
and saw the engine from all points of view, betraying a 
great deal of curiosity in regard to its operation, but no fear. 
They even obtained a glimmering idea of the manner in which 
the steam acted, to set the enormous mass in motion. Tatson- 
oske asked if it was not the same machine in a smaller eom- 
19 



434 



INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 



pass -wTiicli we used on railroads. During their inspection of 
the ship they saw many things which must have been new and 
strange to them, but their composure and self-possession were 
not in the least disturbed. Notwithstanding the decks were 
crowded with officers and men, whose curiosity to see them 
was very great, they were to all appearance unconscious of it, 
and conducted themselves with as much ease and propriety as 
I ever saw among the most refined people. The complexion 
of these officers was a dark olive, but not too dark to allow a 
ruddy tinge on the lips and cheeks. Their eyes were somewhat 
larger, and not so obliquely set as those of the Chinese, their 
foreheads broader and more open, with a greater facial angle, 
and the expression of their faces denoted a lively and active 
mind. Notwithstanding that spirit of cunning and secrecy 
which, through the continual teachings of their government 
has become almost a second nature to them, their faces were 
agreeable and expressive. Their motions and gestures were 
characterized by an unstudied grace, and it was the unanimous 
opinion of all our officers that they were as perfect gentlemen 
as could be found in any part of the world. A curious illus- 
tration of their dislike to the Chinese, who are greatly inferior 
to them in propriety, and elegance of manner, occurred while 
they were on board. One of their Interpreters, noticing some 
of the Cliinese deck-hands, who had been shipped at Shanghai, 
asked with a face expressive of great contempt and disgust : 
" Is it possible that you have Chinese among your men ?" Mr. 
Portman with much readiness, but not entire candor, replied : 
" These men are the servants of our sailors,^^ and thereby re- 
instated us in the good opinion of the Japanese. 

While going their rounds their swords were left in the 



BEAUTY OF THE SCENERY. 435 

cabin, and most of the ojQ&cers made use of the opportunity to 
examine them. The steel was of admirable quality, and kept 
in good condition, although the shape of tlie blade was rather 
unwieldy, and the handle was without a guard. The scabbards 
were made of shark-skin very handsomely polished. While in 
the cabin, a globe was brought, and the position of the United 
States shown to the Japanese. Tatsonoske immediately pointed 
out "Washington and New York, and seemed tolerably familiar 
with the geography of our country, as well as that of Europe. 
He asked whether in America many of the roads were not cut 
through the mountains — evidently referring to railroads. Ye- 
zaimon expressed his desire to examine a revolver, several of 
which the Japanese had noticed in the officers' belts. Com- 
mander Buchanan therefore fired off all the chambers of a 
genuine " Colt," from the quarter-deck, to his great astonish- 
ment. Before we had half gratified their curiosity (which the 
steam-whistle raised to the highest pitch,) we were off Uraga, 
and they were obliged to leave. 

As we moved out past the promontory of Uraga, the west- 
em shore opened on the left, showing a broad deep bay, em- 
bosomed by hills covered with the greenest and most luxuriant 
foliage, and with several large villages at their base. We ap- 
proached within three miles of the eastern shore, which is lof- 
tier and wilder than the western, rising into a range of rugged 
mountains, which showed no signs of habitation or cultivation. 
But the lower slopes, which undulated gently to the water, 
charmed me by the rich beauty of their scattered groves, and the 
green terraces and lawns into which centuries of patient culti- 
vation has formed them. Outside of England there is nothing 
BO green, so garden-like, so full of tranquil beauty. To the north, 



436 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

the hills gradually sank away, and a sandy spur three or four 
miles in length, stretched into the bay. This proved to be the 
ground -whereon we had seen the parade of Japanese soldiers, 
when the surveying boats ascended the bay. The two mounds 
which I had noticed through a glass, were surmounted with 
batteries of about five guns each. 

Changing our course we made over toward the other side, 
steering for a bold projecting headland, about twelve miles be- 
yond that of Uraga. In the intervening bight, to which Lieut. 
Bent, as the first surveyor, gave the name of " Perry's Bay," 
there are two lovely, green islands. The shores of the bay are 
as thickly settled and as assiduously cultivated, as about and 
below Uraga. During the voyage up, we had at no time less than 
seven fathoms, and generally from thirty to forty. After going 
a short distance, beyond the point reached by the Mississippi, 
and upwards of ten miles beyond our former anchorage, we 
dropped anchor a mile and half from the shore, in thirteen 
fathoms. The inward-bound junks, I noticed, made for a point 
a little east of north from our position. According to the Ja- 
panese charts, and the best descriptions of Yedo, this must have 
been the direction of the capital. A long, low headland was 
visible with the glass, with (apparently) another bight beyond 
it; but to the north-east, for a segment of about 30°, no land 
could be seen. This also corresponded to the form of the 
bay, as given in Japanese charts. 

Toward evening we had another visit from Yezaimon, who 
ha'^i followed us from Uraga, with the intention of finding out 
what our motives were in proceeding so far up the bay. What- 
erer objections he may have made, they did not appear to be 
effectual, for as long as we remained, the survey was prosecuted 



AN EXCURSION TOWARDS YEDO. 437 

with great spirit and activity. On the following day (Friday), 
Lieuts. Cooper, of the Susquehanna, Clitz, of the Mississippi, 
Goldsborough, of the Saratoga, and Mathews, of the Plymouth, 
sounded around the islands and up the head of the bight, where 
they found a deep inlet, into which flowed a beautiful river. 
The banks were studded with villages, groves, and gardens, 
and the officers were enraptured with the beauty of the 
scenery. The natives of both sexes, old and young, came 
down the banks and saluted them in a friendly manner, bring- 
ing them cool spring-water to drink, and ripe peaches from 
their gardens. 

On Friday afternoon, the Commodore went on board the 
Mississippi, transferring his broad pennant to that ship for a 
few hours, while he made an exploring trip still further up 
the bay. After going ten miles in the direction of Yedo, the 
Mississippi put about in twenty fathoms water, and returned 
to her former anchorage, having reached, as was supposed, a 
point within eight miles of the capital. On the western shore 
the large towns of Kanagawa and Kowazacki were seen; 
while on the extremity of a cape in front, not more than four 
miles distant, stood a tall white tower, resembling a light- 
house. Three or four miles beyond and within this point was 
a orowd of shipping, which was without doubt the anchorage 
of Sinagawa, the southern suburb of Yedo. There was every 
probability that the Mississippi could have advanced to a 
point within cannon-shot of the city. The head of the bay 
rounded to the eastward, and in that direction the shores be- 
came low and fiat, and finally disappeared below the horizon. 
The squadron had, therefore, advanced twenty miles further 
up the Bay of Yedo than any previous vessel, and shown con- 



438 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

clusively that, instead of being shallow and unnavigable, as 
had' formerly been supposed, it contains abundance of water 
and excellent harbors. It is, in fact, one of the largest and 
finest bays in the world, and second to none in the varied and 
delightful scenery of its shores. 

Early on Saturday morning we moved from our first an- 
chorage to another, five or six miles further down the bay, and 
much nearer to the shore. There was abundance of water 
every where, and all around the beautiful little island, a line 
dropped close to the shore gave five fathoms. The western 
coast, which was less than a mile distant, appeared wonderfully 
green and beautiful. It curved inward so as to form a charm- 
ing sheltered bay, near the head of which the two villages of 
Otsu and Torigasaki lay embosomed in foliage. Theje was 
a small battery, almost masked by trees, on the summit of 
the island, and another on the point of the cape below us. 
This part of the bay is completely land-locked, the promon- 
tory of Uraga projecting so far as to cover one third of the 
eastern shore. The surveying boats were occupied during the 
whole of the day, without any interference on the part of the 
Japanese, who seemed to have made up their minds to submit 
to these unusual proceedings. Too much credit, however, 
cannot be awarded to the different officers, and especially to 
Lieut. Bent, for the coolness and courage with which they pro- 
secuted their work. When we consider that this, one of the 
greatest bays in the world, had hitherto never been surveyed, 
the interest and value of their labors will be better under- 
stood. 

Yezaimon came again on Saturday morning, accompanied 
by both the Interpreters. This time they brought a number 



INTERCHANGE OF PRESENTS. 439 

of presents, as souvenirs of our visit — consisting of lacquered 
cups, very light and elegant in form, brocade silks, richly- 
wrought with gold and silver thread, tobacco pipes and pouches, 
and fans covered with hideously distorted and lackadaisical 
pictures of Japanese ladies. The Commodore was willing to 
receive them, but insisted on giving something in return. A 
selection of American manufactures was made, which, with 
some maps, engravings, arms and other articles, formed a re- 
turn more than equal in value. They refused to take any thing, 
affirming that it was forbidden by their laws, and would sub- 
ject them to the danger of losing their lives : besides, they 
declared, the presents offered them were too valuable to be ac- 
cepted. They were each willing to receive some small articles, 
which could be readily concealed about their persons, but were 
positively informed that we could accept of nothing unless they 
took our gifts, with the exception of the arms, which were re- 
moved, as they stated that they could in no case give or re- 
ceive arms. When Yezaimon saw his presents about to be 
tumbled back into his boat, he yielded at once, choosing what 
he probably considered the least dangerous horn of the di- 
lemma. 

In the afternoon they returned in the best possible humor, 
their course having apparently been sanctioned by some higher 
authority on shore. They brought off a quantity of fowls in light 
wicker coops, and three or four thousand eggs in boxes, taking 
away in return a large case of American garden-seeds. The inter- 
view lasted a considerable time, as they were socially disposed, 
and partook of refreshments, both solid and liquid. Tatsonoske 
stated, in a half-confidential way, that the letter of the Presi- 
dent had been received in Yedo, and that if the translation 



440 INDIA, CHIJfA, AND JAPAN. 

wliicli tih3y had already obtained tlirough the Dutch correspond- 
ed with the original, the Government would be disposed to re- 
gard it very favorably. lie also 'hinted that Yezaimon would 
shortly be promoted to a much higher rank. The latter was 
exceedingly jovial, and stated, by an expressive pantomime, 
that he would shed tears on the departure of the squadron. It 
was dusk when the boat pulled off, and the shadows of the 
wooded hills, lengthening over the water, soon hid from sight 
the last glimpse of our Japanese friends. 

On Sunday morning, the 17th we hove anchor and started 
for Loo-Choo, having in the space of ten days accomplished 
more than any other nation had been able to effect for the last 
two centuries. The universal feeling on board was one of hon- 
est pride and exultation. Knowing the cunning and duplicity 
of the people with whom we had to deal, it was a satisfaction 
to find all their arts of diplomacy completely shattered by 
the simple, straightforward, resolute course adopted by Com- 
modore Perry. Nothing could have been better managed, from 
first to last ; anS I have reason to know that the final success 
of the Expedition was owing to no fortunate combination of 
circumstances, but wholly to the prudent and sagacious plan 
pre-arranged by its Commander. 

The day of our departure was clear and warm, and the 
morning light fell softly on the verdurous shores, as we passed 
the promontory of Uraga. The soldiers were all gathered on 
the terraces, in front of the batteries to see us pass. The 
Mississippi kept such a station on our port quarter, that from 
the shore she would appear as far behind the Saratoga, as that 
vessel from the Susquehanna; and the sight of four great 
vrar-ships, with all sails furled and yards squared, keeping 



THE ISLANDS OF THE BAY. 441 

equi-distant from each other to a hair's breadth, yet moving 
through the water at the rate of eight or nine knots, must have 
struck the Japanese as something miraculous. The day was 
so clear that the inhabitants of both shores had an excellent 
opportunity of seeing the performance of the vessels, and we 
soon found that the news of our departure had preceded us. 
As we drew abreast of Cape Sagami, and made down the centre 
of the bay, keeping much nearer the eastern shore than on our 
entrance, we found the water covered with boats, which had 
brought out loads of the Japanese to get a nearer view. The 
bay was sprinkled with them, far and near, and at a moderate 
calculation, I should say that there were at least five hundred. 
Some of them were so curious as to approach within four or 
five hundred yards, when the men lay on their oars, and re- 
mained standing motionless until long after we had passed. I 
caught a parting glimpse of the cone of Fusi-Yamma through 
the rifts of a pile of fleecy clouds, high over the head of the 
Bay of Kowadzu. 

We steered for the northern or main entrance of the bay, 
keeping between three and four miles from the northern shore, 
which belongs to the province of Awa. Yries Island, or 
Oosima, lay to the south of us. It has a bold, convex outline, 
and its summit was lost in the clouds. It is an admirable land- 
mark for mariners, and in connection with Cape Idzu and 
Rock Island, forms a sure guide for vessels entering the Bay 
of Yedo from the east or south. Our course was nearly due 
south for the remainder of the day, and the chain of islands 
which extends from the mouth of the bay to the penal colony 
of Fatsisio, gradually rose to view. They seem to have been 
very imperfectly explored, for on none of our charts were they 
J9* 



44:2 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

laid down correctly. Vulcan Island is conspicuous for its 
lofty, conical summit, the sides of which are streaked with de- 
posits of lava. It was coveredj from the brink of its sea-worn 
crags, with the most luxuriant vegetation. To the east of it 
was another island, not given in any chart, and the Commodore 
accordingly took the explorer's right, and named it " Missis- 
sippi Island." A cluster of very peculiar pointed rocks, rising 
like broken obelisks to the height of a hundred feet, received 
the Susquehanna's name. The Plymouth and Saratoga were 
also honored — the first with a large isolated rock, the second 
with an island — both of which we claim the merit of dis- 
covering. 

The features of this group are grand and imposing. The 
shores of these islands are mostly precipitous, presenting few 
accessible points, and being nearly circular in form, eohance the 
effect of the lofty summits into which they rise. I counted 
eight around us at one time ; some bold and strongly defined, 
from their vicinity ; others distant, blue, and fioating in a va- 
pory atmosphere, like the phantoms of islands. "We could not 
discern any dwellings upon them, but it is probable that they 
are partly inhabited. We passed through them all before sun- 
set, and still steering southward, hoped to have caught a 
glimpse of Fatsisio, which could not have been more than 
twenty-five miles distant; but night set in, and the vessels 
were put upon their course for Loo-Choo. 

For the next two days, we ran in a south-westerly direc- 
tion, aided by a strong east wind. The Saratoga was cast off 
in Lat. 30° N., and left to make her way to Shanghai, where 
she was ordered to winter. The Mississippi also cast off the 
Plymouth, which was directed to sound and survey along the 



RETURN TO LOO CHOO. 443 

western side of Ohosima (the island supposed to have been 
discovered by the Preble), while the Susquehanna -would cruise 
along the eastern side. Commodore Perry's intention was to 
spend two or three days in fixing the position and dimensions 
of the island, and in communicating, if the nature of the coast 
would allow, with the inhabitants. We looked forward to the 
visit with interest, as there is no account of any vessel having 
ever touched there. It is not often that the traveller meets 
with a large community of semi-civilized people, to whom the 
European race is unknown. 

On Wednesday, July 20th, however, a typhoon came on 
from the east. Our topmasts and topgallant-masts were 
sent down, and we scudded along with only the trysails set. 
The Susquehanna rolled in a most extraordinary manner, and 
the great pivot-gun on her poop, was so secured with lashings, 
and bindings of every description, that it resembled an im- 
mense cast-iron babe in swaddling-bands. For two days the 
storm continued to rage with much violence. Both our fore 
and main trysail-gaffs were carried away, and the Mississippi 
lost two of her boats. We stood off and on for two days, but 
the sea continued so rough that the idea of proceeding to 
Ohosima was finally abandoned, and we made for the harbor of 
Napa, in Loo-Choo, where we arrived on the 25th. Thus ended 
the first campaign of the United States Expedition to Japan — 
concerning which, it will ever be to me a source of pride and 
satisfaction, to say: Pars parva fui. 

I^OTE. — The result of the Expedition to Japan is now kno^vTi all 
over the world. Commodore Perry returned to the Bay of Yedo in 
February, 1854, his squadron augmented by the steam-frigate Powhatan, 
the sloops-of-war Macedonian and Vanda'if;, and the store-ships Lex- 



444 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

ington and Southampton. He anchored before Kanagawa, a remote 
suburb of Yedo, and after various interviews with a Council of five 
Princes of the Empire, appointed to confer with him, concluded a 
treaty of amity and commerce between the United States and Japan, 
at the village of Yoko-hama, near Kanagawa, in the beginning of 
April. By this treaty the ports of Simoda, in Niphon (about 120 miles 
from Yedo), Hakodadi in the island of Jesso, and K"apa-Kiang in Loo- 
Choo, are opened to American vessels for the purposes of trade. The 
squadron visited both the former ports, and the officers of the Expe- 
dition were allowed perfect liberty to go on shore, mingle freely with 
the inhabitants, and make excursions inland to the distance of twenty 
miles. The success of the negotiations was as complete, in fact, as the 
most sanguine friend of the undertaking could have desired, and reflects 
great honor on the skiU and prudence which marked the course of 
Commodore Perry. As my connection with the Expedition ceased after 
our return to China, I shall not attempt a history of its second and far 
more interesting campaign — a complete account of which the public 
will soon possess in the national work now being published under the 
supervision of Commodore Perry 



CHAPTER XXXYI. 

OPERATIONS IN LOO-CHOO. 

Negotiations with the New Eegent— Capt. Ilall's Account of Loo-Choo— Napoleon's 
Incredulity — Its Correctness — Verification of the Japanese Chronicle — The Three 
Castles — The Government of Loo-Choo — Provisions for the Squadron — Duplicity 
of the Officials— The Markets Deserted— The Spies— The Telegraph and Daguerre- 
otype in Loo-Choo— Demands of Commodore Perry— The Eegent's Eeply— Th« 
Commodore successful — A Scene in the Market-place — Chase and Capture of a Spy 
— The Coal Depot — Exhibition of Loo-Choo Industry — National Contrasts — Steam- 
ship Line across the Pacific. 

During our second visit to Napa-Kiang, on our return from 
Japan, Commodore Perry opened negotiations with, the new 
Kegent (the old one having been deposed during our absence), 
for the purpose of procuring privileges, which would enable 
him to make the island a permanent rendezvous for the squa* 
dron during its stay in the East. In order to grant his re- 
quests, it was necessary to depart in some degree from the ex- 
clusive principle, which the Loo-Chooans have either borrowed 
from, or had forced upon them by Japan ; and consequently, 
while — knowing our strength and theii' weakness — they avoid- 
ed a candid opposition, they know how to asrume an attitude 
of passive resistance, which was far more perplexing. The ap- 



446 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

parent insincerity of their declarations, the shifts to which they 
resorted, and the deception they attempted to practise upon us 
taught the Commodore, finally, the only effective method of 
dealing with tliem, and gave us a better insight into their real 
character than has fallen to the lot of any explorers who visit- 
ed the island before us. 

I cannot here avoid allusion to the well-known work of 
Capt. Basil Hall, who has given the most full and detailed ac- 
count of Loo-Choo which we possess. He was commander of 
the Lyra^ which, with the frigate Alceste, visited the island 
thirty-five years ago, and remained about six weeks at Napa- 
Kiang. He had considerable intercourse with the natives, 
whom he paints in the most glowing colors, as models of primi- 
tive simplicity, innocence and goodness, such as are to be 
found in no other part of the globe. He announces as facts, 
that they were ignorant of the use of money, that they had no 
arms, and that wars were unknown in their history. When 
Capt. Hall afterward mentioned these things to Napoleon, at 
St. Helena, the Emperor shook his head incredulously, and ex- 
claimed : " Point d' armes ! point de guerres ! — impossible ! " 
He was right; and the Captain, on these and many other 
points, was thoroughly cajoled by the Loo-Chooans. When 
we first arrived they told us the same things, yet we soon found 
that they were familiar with money and arms — especially the 
former — and Klaproth's translation of the " Ran To Sets" a 
Japanese chronicle, gives an account of their wars Their 
wonderful innocence and simplicity j.rGve to be the disguises 
assumed by a marvellous cunning, and their alleged goodness of 
heart is illustrated by a Government which makes luxurioua 
drones of a small class, and abject slaves of all others. 



GOVERNMENT OF LOO-CHOO. 447 

During our exploration of the island, we found an interest- 
ing verification of its former history, as given in the Japanese 
chronicle. It is there stated, that there were originally three 
kingdoms, called the Northern, Central and Southern, the first 
and last named of which were in the course of time, and after 
lingering civil wars, absorbed by the third. On our expedi- 
tion into the interior, in the beginning of June, we discovered, 
as I have already stated, the ruins of the fortress-palace of the 
Northern King — a massive edifice, 600 feet in length, on the 
summit of a mountain. The present Viceroy, descended from 
the rulers of the Central Kingdom, still inhabits their castle : 
the inscription over the gate of Shui, the capital, is : " The 
Central Hill," and it was therefore to be expected that the 
castle of the third King might be found in the southern part 
of the island. Accordingly, on our return from Japan, Com- 
modore Perry directed several officers, of whom I was one, to 
make explorations in that quarter, and we finally discovered 
the ruins of the castle, about four miles south-east of Napa, on 
the summit of a precipitous cliff, which commanded a view of 
an extensive and beautiful landscape. The place is called by 
the natives " Timagusku," and has been so despoiled that only 
two gateways remain entire. The outer walls inclose an area 
of nearly eight acres. 

It was not so easy to obtain correct particulars concerning 
the structure of the Government, although its character was 
exhibited in its effects upon the population. The present 
Viceroy is a minor, and the chief authority is exercised by a 
Regent, the three Treasurers of the kingdom, and perhaps 
some additional officers, forming a Council which he consults, 
and in which, apparentl}^, is vested the right to appoint or de- 



448 INDIA, CHINA, 

pose hink. There are also various grades of civil rank, as in 
China and Japan. The soil is considered the property of the 
State, and all that it yields is divided into ten parts, six of 
which are appropriated by the Government. There is every 
evidence that a system of espionage, similar to that of Japan, 
is practised. The deep-rooted fear and mistrust of the people 
toward the officers of the Government, can only be accounted 
for by the existence of such a system. Wherever we went we 
found ourselves preceded and followed by spies, who drove the 
populace from our path, forced them in some instances to quit 
their dwellings or abandon their villages, and prevented them 
from holding any communication with us. Although, owing 
to the remonstrances made by Commodore Perry, this annoy- 
ing surveillance was relaxed toward the close of our stay, it 
was never wholly abandoned. 

After our arrival at Napa-Kiang, in May, the squadron 
was in want of fresh provisions, and the Commodore requested 
that supplies might be furnished, promising that full value 
should be paid for every article. The Loo-Choo authorities at 
first objected, stating that their island was poor, and that 
money was of no use to them, but that they would furnish 
gratuitously what little they coald spare from their own 
needs ; yet after some negotiations, they agreed to the demand, 
and fixed a scale of prices, which, on comparison with those 
of China, we found to be sufficiently high. The well-stocked 
markets of Napa, and the rich gardens and harvest-fields 
which covered the island, contradicted their complaints of 
poverty. When the day of settlement came, they were al- 
ways in readiness to receive the money, and took the Spanish 



GOVERNMENT SPIES. 449 

dollars and American eagles with great satisfaction. Tims the 
way was broken for a closer intercourse with the people. 

The next step was to obtain our supplies direct from the 
markets of Napa. The persons appointed to fill up the lists 
sent from the different vessels fulfilled their office in a very 
satisfactory manner. In few instances was more than half the 
amount supplied, which had been called for, and at last, when 
a mess needed a dozen fowls and a hundred eggs, it was neces- 
sary to demand 50 of the one, and 500 of the other. The ob- 
ject of this was to keep up the appearance of poverty, though 
at the same time the public markets, open to the natives, 
abounded in every thing which we stood in need of. Many 
persons — ^both officers and men — went ashore repeatedly, and 
endeavored to make purchases, but they were successful in very 
few instances. They were dogged by spies, whose appearance 
sufficed to clear the market in a few minutes. The natives 
fied precipitately in all directions, leaving their stands of 
fruit, vegetables, pottery and other articles of sale or barter, 
entirely unprotected, and the market-square which, when we 
first caught sight of it, was crowded with hundreds of busy 
buyers and sellers, was left vacant and desolate. The same 
course was followed in all parts of the town. Shops were 
closed, streets deserted, and though we sometimes endeavored 
to steal a march upon the inhabitants by darting suddenly 
into a private dwelling, we rarely succeeded in finding any 
one within. Yet, whenever, by chance, we met with them 
when no spies were visible, they showed an evident good-will 
towards us, and a desire to cultivate a familiar intercourse. 
At such times they thankfully accepted money or presents, 
which they steadfastly refused, when any agent of the Govern- 



450 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

ment 'was near. On our tours of exploration, we generally 
carried with us a quantity of ship's biscuit, which the inhabi- 
tants of the villages took very eagerly, seeming to consider it 
a great delicacy. 

During our first visit, the Commodore applied to the au- 
thorities to lease him a house on shore for a short time, that 
the daguerreotype and telegraphic apparatus might be put up 
and tested. They designated the little temple near the village 
of Tumai, two miles north of Napa, which had been given to 
Capts. Maxwell and Hall, as a hospital for their seamen. 
There is a correct sketch of it in Hall's work. Messrs. Brown 
and Draper, the artists, went ashore with their assistants, and 
remained there three weeks. They were daily visited by num- 
bers of the better class of natives, who watched their operations 
with the greatest curiosity. They at once comprehended, the 
properties of the daguerreotype, and willingly sat for their 
portraits. They understood the necessity of remaining per- 
fectly quiet, and were as rigid as statues, not venturing to 
move an eyelid. When the impression was good, nothing 
could exceed their wonder and delight. The excessive mois- 
ture in the air of Loo-Choo, and the absence of any fitting lo- 
cation for the instruments, operated unfavorably upon the 
plates, and not more than twenty good pictures were procured. 
These, however, are of much value, as giving perfect represen- 
tations of the features and costumes of the Loo-Chooans. 
The telegraphic apparatus worked admirably, and though the 
natives could only partially comprehend its character, they re- 
garded it with a kind of superstitious awe. 

Considering the advantages which the island of Loo-Choo 
offered, as a temporary naval station, and rendezvous for the 



EASTERN DIPLOMACY AGAIN. 451 

squadron — its proximity to Japan ; its temperate and healthy 
climate ; its secure harbor, and its remoteness from the jealous 
•watchfulness of rival nations — Commodore Perry made the 
following demands of the Regent : 1st, that the Government 
should lease him a building suitable for a coal depot ; 2d, that 
the markets of Napa should be thrown open to us, and the na- 
tives be allowed to deal directly with us, without the tedious 
and unsatisfactory agency of the official purveyors ; 3d, that 
the system of espionage to which we had been subjected, 
should be relinquished in future ; and 4th, that the Government 
should make a collection of the articles manufactured in the 
island, in order that we might have an opportunity of purchas- 
ing specimens. It was represented, in support of these de- 
mands, that two months of intercourse, during which they had 
no single cause of complaint against any persci belonging to 
the squadron, should be sufficient to convince them of our 
friendly disposition toward them ; that in allowing us to pur- 
chase the commodities which their people offered for sale, we 
conferred a direct benefit upon them ; that we had explored 
their island, seen its abundant resources, and knew that they 
would be enriched, not impoverished, by the supplies which 
they furnished us; and lastly, that both as friends to the 
Loo-Chooans, and as the representatives of a great nation, the 
employment of spies to watch our motions was an indignity to 
which we could no longer submit. 

The reply of the Regent was a good illustration of the in- 
sincere, evasive diplomacy of Eastern nations. It granted 
nothing and denied nothing. With regard to the coal depot, 
it was suggested that the people would steal the coal in case it 
was deposited there; that typhoons might blow down the 



452 INDIA, CHmA, AND JAPAN. 

building ; tliat there was no part of the harbor where coal 
could be landed, &c. As for the markets, they had never pre- 
vented us from going there to purchase, but the people feared 
and they fled away because they were afraid. The persons 
who followed us were not spies, but officers appointed to watch 
over, protect and assist us. If we did not desire them they 
would be released from their service. The reply wound up as 
usual, by a declaration of the smallness and poverty of the 
island. The Commodore however took a blunt, straight for- 
ward course which obliged them to give a decisive answer, and 
as in the case of the Japanese, he gained his point. His diplo- 
macy, no doubt, seemed somewhat arbitrary in both cases, but 
where dissimulation and evasion form the web of a policy, aa 
with these nations, there is no course so effective as plain com- 
mon sense, backed up by a good reserve of physical force. 

A number of us went ashore the day after the concessions 
were made, in order to test their good faith. We entered Napa, 
and set out for the market-place, keeping a good watch to see 
whether any spies were lurking about. Most of the shops were 
shut as usual, but we found the market crowded, and a brisk 
trade going on in vegetables, cheese, pork, earthenware, paper, 
plain cotton goods, and the other articles in common use 
among the natives. At first, our appearance created no dis- 
turbance, but we had scarcely reached the middle of the square, 
when the crowd began to scatter as if a bomb -shell had fallen 
among them.* The superannuated old women who could not 
get out of the way, crouched behind their umbrellas, and if we 
approached them, turned their heads aside or stuck them under 
their arms, that they might not see us. Except by them, and 
a few men of the lowest class, the place was soon deserted. 



BUILDING A COAL DEPOT. 453 

We looked ia all directions for the source of this dispersion, 
and at lajt caught a glimpse of the head of a spy, peeping 
cautiously around a corner. We instantly gave chase, but he 
escaped us. Wherever we went, we saw them dodging us in the 
distance, and if we turned on our steps and followed them, they 
took to their heels. But there was one — an ill-favored, one- 
eyed gentleman in a robe of yellow grass-cloth — who persisted 
in keeping close to us. At last a spirited midshipman started 
in chase of him. Away they raced through the pork market, 
the people scattering on both sides before them, yet looking on 
with evident amusement. The one-eyed gentleman spread his 
robes on the wind, but the midshipman gained on him, and 
finally grasping him by the back of the neck, gave him a 
shaking that made his remaining eye quiver in its socket. He 
did not return, and we had the satisfaction of purchasing some 
cucumbers in the market — ^which was at least a beginning of 
trade. 

The site for a coal depot was at once selected, the dimen- 
sions given, and before we left, a company of Loo-Choo carpen- 
ters were on the ground, hewing the timbers which were to 
form the frame of the building. It was located in the creek 
of Tumai, the most convenient place for landing, and near the 
little temple, which was at that time occupied by an officer and 
two or three men from the storeship Supply. The sloop-of- 
war Plymouth was ordered to remain at Napa, until relieved 
by the Vandalia, so that the entering wedge we drove into 
Loo-Choo exclusiveness, which had remained intact up to the 
time of our arrival, will continue to widen the breach, and 
efi'ect a permanent opening for intercourse with the rest of 
maukind. 



46-1 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

The " Great Exliibition " of Loo-Clioo Industry came off on 
the morning we left Napa for Hong Kong. It took place in 
the cung-qua^ a government building of the town, under the 
auspices of the Mayor and a number of civil officers. As it 
was probably the first attempt at such a display ever made in 
the Island, it was got up in creditable style. The articles con- 
sisted of Loo-Choo cotton and grass-cloths, in pieces and made 
into garments ; Japanese silks ; brass hair-pins ; straw sandals; 
fans ; tobacco pipes and pouches, of various kinds ; chow chow, 
or refreshment boxes ; paper, of different colors ; earthen 
pots, pans and vases, some of them neatly glazed, and a great 
variety of black and scarlet lacquered ware. The fair was at- 
tended by all of the officers who could be spared from the 
vessels, and as they were all anxious to procure some souvenir 
of the Island, the sales were brisk and rapid, and most of the 
articles went off at a premium. We computed that there were 
at least a hundred dollars spent on the occasion. The steamers 
were under sailing orders, and th^ activity that prevailed on 
our part seemed to puzzle and bewilder the deliberate and im- 
passive Loo-Chooans. Such avidity to purchase, such apparent 
recklessness of expenditure, were quite beyond their compre- 
hension. They lost " the run " of us, and looked on in help- 
less amazement, trusting to Fate for the final balance to show 
a preponderance in their favor. 

Thus, in addition to the establishment of friendly inter- 
course with Japan, Commodore Perry has opened Loo-Choo, 
its most important dependency. At the same time, by his 
purchase of the tract of land best adapted for a coal depot, on 
Port Lloyd, in the Benin Islands, he has secured to the United 
States the most available station in the "Western Pacific for a 



ENTERING PORT LLOYD. 456 

line of steamers between China and California. Honolulu and 
Port Lloyd are the natural stopping-places on the route be- 
tween San Francisco and Shanghai. For the first, coal may 
be transported from Oregon and Vancouver's Island ; for the 
second, from the Japanese island of Kiusiu, less than five 
hundred miles distant. Loo-Choo lies too far south for the 
route to Shanghai, but that to Hong Kong passes near it. Its 
commerce is too trifling to be an object of consideration ; but 
as a naval station or a port for supplies, it has many things to 
recommend it, and the step which has been made toward bring- 
ing it into the list of lands which are open to intercourse with 
the civilized world, deserves to be recorded. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

NAVAL LIFE. 

Betam to Hong Kong — End of the Cruise — Experience of Naval Life — My Duties on 
Board — " General Quarters " — Our Crew — Decline of Naval Discipline — False Sys- 
tem of Promotion— Delays— "What is Needed— Harmony of Government at Sea — 
The Abolition of Corporeal Punishment— Want of an Efficient Substitute — Govern- 
ment on Sea and Land — Mr. Kennedy's Proposal for Eegistered Seamen — EflPect of 
Long Cruises— Need of Small Vessels in Chinese Waters, 

We sailed from Loo-Choo on the 1st of August, but were 
delayed by strong head-winds, until we had doubled the south- 
ern end of the island of Formosa, and entered the China Sea. 
On the second day out from Napa we saw some of the Madjico- 
sima Islands, which lie between Formosa and the Loo-Choo 
group, and at dusk the same evening, met the sloop-of-war 
Vandalia, on her way to join the squadron. Salutes were ex- 
changed, Capt. Pope reported himself to the Commodore, re- 
ceived his orders, and the vessels lost each other again in the 
darkness. The rest of the voyage was without incident. By 
taking a more southern course than usual across the China 
Sea, we missed encountering the steam-frigate Powhatan^ 
vrhich sailed from Hong Kong on the 6th, the day previous to 



MY DUTIES ON BO.^RD. 457 

our arrival th-ere. At sunset on the 7th, I sa-w again the bleak 
hills and the long semi-European town which I had left in 
March previous, and when the anchor dropped in the harbor, 
my last cruise on a Government vessel was at an end. 

I shall always look back upon my short experience of naval 
life as one of the most agreeable and interesting episodes of my 
travels. Apart from the rare opportunity which it afforded 
me of visiting and exploring remote and unfrequented portions 
of the earth, it has enabled me to gain some insight into the 
nature and operations of a service, which, to a commercial na- 
tion, like our own, must ever be the most important arm of 
protection and defence. I cannot avoid making a few remarks 
upon our naval system before taking a final leave of it — and 
such observations as I make, may not be inappropriately offered 
at present, when our Government, after a long and culpable 
neglect of the Navy, seems to be at last slowly awaking to the 
necessity of reorganizing it. 

Although my rank of acting Master's Mate rendered me 
liable to be called upon at any time to discharge the duties 
usually assigned it, it imposed upon me no higher obligation in 
reality, than that of conforming in all respects to the etiquette 
of the service. I was attached to the corps of artists, who held 
the same rank, and were especially subject to the Commodore's 
orders ; and when not employed on explorations — a branch of 
duty of which I was never weary — occupied myself with mak- 
ing sketches of birds, flowers, fish and landscapes, and with 
keeping a faithful record of our experiences. The fact that I 
messed on the orlop deck, went up and down the port ladders, 
and smoked forward of the main shaft, did not exclude me 

from the hospitalities of the ward-room and the commanders* 

20 



458 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

cabins. By Commodore Perry and Capt. Buchanan, especially 
I was treated with unvarying kindness. 

The only ship's duty I was called upon to perform, besides 
taking charge of a boat now and then, and keeping a two-hour 
watch in Japan, was to appear in my station at " general quar- 
ters," which were beaten quite frequently previous to our arri- 
val in the Bay of Yedo. " General quarters," I should state 
for the information of the landsman, is a combination of a re- 
view and a sham fight. Every one of the ship's company 
has his place assigned to him, and at the well-known rappel, 
and fife-call, officers, seamen, mariners and boys fall into their 
proper places, the rolls are called, and the formalities of a na- 
val engagement are practised. The guns are run in, loaded, 
and run out and fired ; the seamen, armed with cutlasses and 
boarding pikes, trot fore and aft, crowding the rail on alternate 
bows and quarters, to repel imaginary boarders ; the marines, 
behind them, load and discharge noiseless volleys in rapid suc- 
cession ; the bell gives the signal of fire, for the ship has been 
ignited by an intangible hot shot ; the pumps are rigged, and by 
great exertions the invisible flames are extinguished — and, last 
of all, the hostile flag strikes, and the band plays " Yankee 
Doodle" in token of victory. My station was at first on the 
orlop deck, over the magazine, to superintend the passing up of 
immaterial powder-cans, but I was afterwards transferred to the 
quarter-deck, where I spent the hour in watching the perform- 
ance of our great pivot-gun. There was also target practice, 
in which the officers usually joined, and I was struck with the 
large proportion of good shots among the ship's company. 

Although I was not often brought into direct contact with 
the crew, I soon made acquaintance with them, and learned to 



FALSE SYSTEM OF PROMOTIOlNi. 469 

understand and appreciate the blunt, hearty, generous sailor 
character. There is a great variety of elements in every crew, 
but the good and bad are more readily known than in any so- 
ciety on shore. Dissimulation is soon detected on shipboard ; 
as on the battle-field, no man can purchase a substitute or shift 
his duty upon other shoulders than his own. Whatever may be 
the faults of seamen, they are, as a class, honest, open-hearted 
and courageous — full of firm masculine fibre and a healthy 
cheerfulness — and I confess to a warm attachment for them. 

It is a serious fact, felt even more keenly by those in the 
service than by the public at large, that the efficiency of our Navy 
has been of late years greatly impaired, and that it is no longer 
animated by the same prompt, active, energetic spirit, which 
drew into its ranks some of the boldest and bravest characters 
which adorn our history. The nature of the service is such as 
to stimulate and keep alive the ambition of those enlisted in 
it ; and we must therefore look to the legislation which con- 
trols it, for the cause of this change. The two prominent evils 
under which the Navy now labors are, a relaxation of disci- 
pline among the men, and a system which, among the officers, 
makes promotion dependent entirely upon seniority, and, by 
rendering null any amount of brilliant service, discourages all 
manly emulation. 

As there has hitherto been no retired list, the officers who 
are incapacitated by age or disease, or any other cause, from 
active service, hang as a dead weight upon the chances of all 
those whose term of service is less than theirs. In time of 
peace, their ranks are continually accumulating, so that the 
number allotted to each grade having once been filled up, pro- 
motions after that can only take place to fill the vacancies 



460 



caused by death. The younger officer, therefore, grows old in an 
inferior rank, and by the time he is invested with a command, 
having passed the best years of his life in a subordinate posi- 
tion, is naturally timid and distrustful of himself under re- 
sponsibilities which he would have borne lightly, if bestowed 
before his youthful energy and ambition were wholly deadened. 
This very energy and ambition of youth constitutes the stamina 
of naval and military life, and that service will inevitably de- 
cay, which does not extend to it at least a partial encourage- 
ment. 

Under the system at present pursued by the Government, 
our Navy is gradually filling up with Passed Midshipmen of 
thirty, and Lieutenants of forty-five, while an officer whose hair 
is not entirely gray (if indeed he has any left to show), before 
attaining the rank of Post Captain, may consider himself 
especially fortunate. There is a weight of invalided, indolent, 
or superannuated material above him, which nothing but the 
slow process of death can remove. No deed of daring, no bold 
achievement, no amount of hazardous and arduous duty, involv- 
ing years of absence from all the amenities of civilized life, will 
advance him one step nearer the post, which terminates the 
vista of his ambition. No one complained of the efficiency of 
the Navy when Perry, Decatur and Lawrence were Captains, 
at an age when no Passed Midshipman is now rash enough to 
dream of a Lieutenant's commission. Heroes are made early ; 
and the English and French Governments acknowledge the fact 
by promoting for meritonous conduct, as well as for length of 
days. In the French Navy, I believe, one third of the promo- 
tions are based on this ground. 

A retired list, such as has recently been provided for by an 



HARMONY OF GOVERNMENT AT SEA. 461 

act of Congress, will partly remedy the evil, but it is not 
Bufficient. A man who has rendered special and signal ser- 
vice to his country deserves to be rewarded. This claim, 
which is partially recognized in our Army, ought to have equal 
weight in the Navy. Not that I believe that in cases where 
the honor of the country is at stake, our naval officers would 
be found wanting in courage and spirit, but the prospect of re- 
ward would keep alive an active pride and emulation, which 
would manifest itself at all times, and on all occasions. Our 
most promising officers would not then be driven to resign as 
they are now by the disheartening prospect of twenty or thirty 
years of subordinate rank, which no exertion of theirs can ren- 
der more brief. 

It is impossible that such a state of things should not tell 
upon the discipline of the ship, even where there are no more 
direct influences at work. The relations in which all, officers 
and men, stand to each other, on board of a man-of-war, are so 
intricate and so nicely adjusted, that a derangement in any 
quarter is felt throughout the whole machine. When it ope- 
rates in perfect harmony, no pyramid could be more symmetri- 
cal. But if the Captain, or cap-stone, press uncomfortably 
hard on the layer beneath him, the pressure makes itself felt 
through all the courses that follow, down to the seamen — the 
broad base on which all rest. A well-appointed frigate, 
where discipline is encouraged by duty, and authority tem- 
pered by justice, is to me the crowning miracle of social go- 
vernment. 

There is at present no effective system of punishment foi 
minor offences on board our men-of-war. Congress, by taking 
away the only recognized penalty, that of corporeal punish- 



462 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

ment •without fixing any legal substitute has thrown upon 
the officers the responsibility of inventing new forms of 
punishment, which shall correct the faults of the offender, 
without withdrawing him frou? active duty, or rendering 
the officer himself liable to censure, on the ground of in- 
human or extraordinary measures. No such punishment has 
yet been discovered. That which was recommended at the 
time flogging was abolished — solitary confinement, on bread 
and water — is no punishment at all to the vicious or re- 
fractory seaman, who sees in it an excellent opportunity of 
skulking from work ; while the other plans in force — such as 
carrying a sixty-eight pound shot, standing lashed fast in one 
position for a certain number of hours, &c., are looked upon 
as a kind of slow torture, and in many^cases tend to exasperate 
still further a nature already vicious. Either of these methods 
punishes the good as well as the bad, by removing the offender 
from his work, which thus falls upon the honest and faithful sea- 
men. The good men who are never punished, are rewarded for 
their fidelity by being obliged to perform more than their share 
of the labor, and are gradually being driven out of the service. 
I have heard it proposed that the idle and insubordinate shall 
be mulcted in their wages, and the sums thus deducted divided 
among the others. I am correct in my estimate of the sailor 
character, when I say that very few of them would accept such 
a reward. In fact, where a man really guilty has been pun- 
ished by the loss of his wages for a number of months the en- 
tire crew has united to repay him the loss. Few sailors are 
destitute of a sense of honor, which would lead them to spurn 
the taking of a shipmate's wages, no matter how culpable that 
shipmate might be. 



MISTAKEN PHILANTHROPY. 463 

No deductions can be drawn from the experience of society 
on shore which would be of much advantage in the government 
of a ship on the open ocean, cut off from the world, and a world 
in itself, but in many respects of a very different order from that 
with which landsmen are acquainted. Every member of this 
world has his appointed, station and his regular daily duties. 
He is subject to inexorable laws, and obedience to those laws 
must be enforced at every hazard. Without entire and abso- 
lute subordination a navy cannot exist. Its character is neces- 
sarily despotic, in fact, all sea life is so, and must always be 
so. Its government demands the exercise of the strictest jus- 
tice, and of justice to all. In its forms of punishment, there- 
fore, that which most effectually preserves discipline, which 
corrects the guilty without throwing an additional burden on the 
good, is the most expedient. 

Among the seamen who compose the crews of our national 
vessels, there is every variety of character. Men as brave, 
manly and generous as any class can afford, there are ; in 
most cases, no doubt, the major part of the crew are reputable 
in their conduct ; but there is always — at least, under the pre- 
sent system- — a leaven of depravity and sullen, dogged wicked- 
ness, which will bend to nothing but material force. I have 
seen so frequently the inefficiency of the other methods of pun- 
ishment employed, and have heard, from the men themselves, 
such honest desire for the restoration of the old regime^ that 1 
cannot avoid the conclusion that the entire abolition of cor- 
poreal punishment in the Navy, without authorizing some 
effective substitute, was one of those mistaken acts of philan- 
thropy which are founded on abstract ideas of humanity rather 
than a practical knowledge of human nature. It has more 



464 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

than ^nce happened, on board our vessels, that the seamen, in 
defiance of authority, have seized below decks and soundly 
flogged the idle and vicious, whom all other punishments had 
failed to intimidate. 

Mr. Kennedy, Ex-Secretary of the Navy, in one of his An- 
nual Reports, recommends a course which will partly remedy 
the evil by drawing into the service a better class of men, and 
thereby rendering punishments of all kinds less frequent. I 
allude to his proposal for creating a class of " registered 
seamen," who shall be permanently attached to the Navy, and 
receive an increased rate of pay with every five years of their 
service. The high wages now paid to sailors in the mer- 
chant service will soon render the adoption of some such plan 
necessary, in order to procure seamen at all — notwithstanding 
the superior comforts which a man-of-war affords, and that 
representative national character which is so gratifying to the 
pride of an American tar. There are many noble fellows 
among our seamen, and the adoption of a measure like Mr. 
Kennedy's, which would retain them in the service and 
ide^tify them with its achievements, would go far toward 
restoring that energy and morale which once made our crews 
the finest in the world. I am too proud to admit that they 
are not so still ; but every year makes the difference between 
the slackening discipline of our vessels, and the perfect and 
thorough subordination witnessed in the English Navy, more 
painfully perceptible. 

While upon this theme I must allude to another circum- 
stance which has an injurious operation — at least upon the 
vessels attached to the East India station, and I have no doubt 
the Pacific and African stations as well. I allude to the 



SMALL STEAMERS NEEDED. 460 

length of the cruise. Three years in those climates, hot and 
unhealthy as they are, is trying to any constitution, while from 
the absence of all that can excite or amuse, the men gradually 
become spiritless and depressed. So far removed from home, 
exposed to gross sensual temptations, where every indulgence 
is followed by a terrific penalty, the length of the cruise tends 
inevitably to demoralize the crew. An active cruise of two 
years would accomplish far more than an idle one of three. 

What is needed for the East India station is not a leviathan 
war-steamer like the Susquehanna, which cannot go within 
thirty miles of Ning-po and Foo-chow-foo, and can barely man- 
age to reach Shanghai, but two small steamers, drawing not 
more than twelve or fourteen feet of water. When Canton was 
menaced, we could with difficulty get a store-ship within reach 
of the factories, to watch over the interests of our citizens. If a 
fleet of piratical junks was hovering about the Ladrone Islands, 
and one of our big vessels attempted to follow, they were off at 
once into water too shallow for us. The small English steam- 
ers Hermes and Styx did more in this way for the security of 
commerce, than all other men-of-war on the coast collectively. 
20* 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

H O N G - K O N G— S OCIETY IN CHINA. 

Impressions of Hong-Kong— A Man Drowned at Midnight — Hong-Kong from the 
Water— The town of Victoria— The Island of Hong-Kong— The Hong-Kong Fever- 
Hospitality of Foreign Eesidents in China— Their Princely Style of Living— Rigid 
Social Etiquette — Balls— Tropical Privileges— The Anglo-Saxon Abroad. 

My first impressions of Hong-Kong were not very favorable, 
but I attributed them partly to the gloomy March weather 
which prevailed during my stay. After the genial quiet of 
Macao, and the mellow historic light which plays about its de- 
caying palaces, the thoroughly modern air and desolate sur- 
roundings of the place became still more distasteful to me, and 
an unfortunate association which I shall never be able wholly 
to banish from memory, increased the feeling into absolute dis- 
like. 

On the second evening after our arrival I went ashore with 
some friends, and did not return until ten o'clock. My cot 
was not yet slung, for my hammock-boy was one of the crew 
of the Captain's boat which had also gone ashore. He was a 
strong, dark-eyed, lusty fellow named John Williams — one of 
the maintopmen, who are generally the picked men of the 
ship. About eleven o'clock Williams made his appearance, 



A MAN DROWNED AT MIDNIGHT. 467 

with mj^cot, which he slung in its accustomed place; but in- 
stead of silently going forward again, as was his wont, he turn- 
ed suddenly and asked me whether I thought it possible that 
he could get a release from the service. His mother, he said, 
had died, and some property had fallen to him which he wished 
to secure. I advised him to consult with some of the officers, 
who were better acquainted with the customs of the service. 
He seemed to labor under a singular depression of spirit, and 
after lingering for some time in silence, as if reluctant to turn 
away, he finally said : " Well, sir, it is the last cruise I shall 
ever make," — and left me. 

My cot was slung in a temporary poop-cabin on deck, which 
Commodore Perry had ordered to be erected for the use of the 
artists. I had not slept more than two hours, when my sleep 
was suddenly broken by a cry — -a wild, gurgling, despairing 
cry which still rings in my ears whenever I think of that night. 
1 sprang from my cot and listened. There was a trampling of 
feet on the deck outside, a hurried order, " cut the painter ! " 
and again a bubbling cry, but feebler, under the stern. I 
sprang to one of the windows, looked out, and saw a hand beat- 
ing the water blindly and convulsively in the eddy of the rud- 
der. I was about to spring out when a coil of rope fell in the 
water and the hand grasped it. A horrible phosphorescent 
light shone around the body, struggling beneath the surface. 
Three men were in the little dingey which lay under the stern, 
but before they could cut the painter, the hand let go its weak 
hold, the rope slackened, and the body sank. The men had no 
oars, but half drifting with the tide, half paddling with their 
hands, they floated over it. Just beyond — ^just out of their 
reach — a head rose an instant to the surface once more, mak- 



468 

ing a ring of ghastly light. There was one bubble, aij^ it sank 
forever, the phosphorescent gleam sinking slowly with it, until 
nothing more was seen. 

The drowned man was no other than John Williams. He 
had the mid-watch, and his station was on the forward guard 
of the star-board paddle-box. It was conjectured that he had 
sat down upon a bucket to rest, near the edge of the guard, and 
had either fallen asleep and reeled over, or lost his balance by 
the tilting of the bucket. One of the cutters was moored be- 
side the paddle-box, and he probably struck upon it and dis- 
abled himself, as he was known to be an excellent swimmer. 
Some of the men asserted that they had seen a large fish dart 
past just before he let go his hold of the rope, and supposed 
that he had been carried under by a shark. His body was 
found however two or three weeks afterwards unmutilated, and 
was placed in the cemetery at Hong-Kong, where a tomb-stone 
was erected over it by his messmates. I have seen death in 
many shapes, but there was an awful fatality about this which 
shocked me profoundly. Night and day I heard the terrible 
drowning cry, until I feared that my ear would never lose the 
consciousness of it. Nearly a month afterwards, I again visited 
Hong-Kong, and having been rowed ashore from the steamer, 
in the dusk of evening, the oars struck a phosphorescent lustre 
from the water ; I gi-ew deathly sick at the image which those 
gleams recalled. 

It is, therefore, if not my fault, at least my misfortune, 
that I cannot endorse the praises of Hong-Kong, which its 
residents are accustomed to bestow upon it. Seen from the 
water, the town, stretching for a mile along the shore, at the 
foot of Victoria Peak, whose granite cliff towers eighteen hun 



HONG-KONG FROM THE WATER. 4C9 

dred feet above, bears considerable resemblance to Gibraltar. 
The Governor's mansion, the Bishop's Palace, the Church and 
Barracks occupy conspicuous positions, and the houses of mer- 
chants and government officials, scattered along the steep sides 
of the hill, give the place an opulent and flourishing air. ^o 
far from being disappointed in this respect, one is surprised to 
find that ten years of English occupation have sufficed to civi- 
lize so completely a barren Chinese island. 

The town is almost entirely made up of the long street 
called Victoria K-oad, which runs parallel to the shore. It is 
broad, well built and well paved, and being the great thorough- 
fare of the place, lengthening into a military road which 
makes the circuit of the island, has at all times a busy and an- 
imated air. The streets which cross it strike directly up the 
hill, and are in many places so steep that it has been found 
necessary to turn them into flights of steps. The gray granite 
of which the island is composed furnishes excellent material for 
building purposes, and is extensively employed in the houses, 
streets and piers. Large quantities of it, dressed in the quar- 
ries by Chinese laborers, are shipped to San Francisco, 
where it is in great demand. Several entire buildings have 
been sent over and erected in that city. The English Church 
is a large Gothic building, without any pretensions to architec- 
tural beauty. On a natural platform above it, stands the 
palace of Bishop Smith — a long mansion in the Elizabethan 
style. The Governor's new residence was in the course of con- 
struction, and not sufficiently advanced to hint at its char- 
acter. 

The island of Hong-Kong is about thirty miles in circum- 
ference, and consists of a desolate cluster of m ;untains, which 



470 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

offer lU) opportunity of cultivation. Nearly all the fruit and 
vegetables consumed in the town come from Macao. There is 
a small village, inhabited by Chinese fishermen, on the south- 
ern side, and a Military Hospital on the east, looking upon 
the Lymoon Passage, which opens into the China Sea ; but the 
English colony is concentrated in and about the town of Vic- 
toria, which is built on the northern side, facing the mainland. 
The harbor is spacious, with a good anchorage, and well shel- 
tered, except in case of an unusually violent typhoon. From 
the position of the town, it is cut off from the south-west mon- 
soon in summer, while the vapors collected by the mountain 
contribute to produce an intense, moist heat, which occasions 
violent fever. The " Hong-Kong fever," as it is called, has 
been described by some facetious traveller as combining the 
worst symptoms of cholera, yellow and typhus fevers, with other 
and worse features of its own. The mortality among the 
troops stationed here was formerly very great, but it has been 
lessened of late years by the adoption of stringent sanitary 
measures. 

For amusements, besides riding, boating, yacht regattas, 
&c., there is a club, with a library, reading and billiard rooms, 
and a bowling-alley, much frequented by Americans. The so- 
ciety is not extensive, but intelligent and agreeable, and the 
same lordly hospitality, with which I first became acquainted 
in India, prevails not only here but throughout all the foreign 
communities in China. This custom originated long ago, in 
the isolation to which the foreign merchant was condemned, 
and the iufrequency of visitors from the distant world, which 
he had temporarily renounced. Then all houses were open 
to the guest, and the luxury which had been created to 



PRINCELY STYLE OF LIVING. 471 

Boften tlie gilded exile, was placed at his command. Tlie es- 
tablishmeLit of steamship lines, the building of hotels and other 
progressive agencies, have somewhat moderated this liberality, 
and may in time reduce it to the cautious and guarded hos- 
pitality of home ; but there is still enough of the old genial 
spirit left to make a stranger feel satisfied with the welcome 
he receives. 

I doubt if there be another class of men, who live in more 
luxurious state than the foreign residents in China. Their 
households are conducted on a princely scale, and whatever 
can be had in the way of furniture, upholstery or domestic ap- 
pliances of any sort, to promote ease and comfort, is sure to be 
found in their dwellings. Their tables are supplied with the 
choicest which the country can afford, and a retinue of well- 
drilled servants, whose only business it is to study their habits, 
anticipate all their wants. All the management of the house- 
hold is in the hands of native servants. The " comprador " 
furnishes the necessary supplies — for which he generally ob- 
tains a fat commission — the butler regulates the internal 
economy ; and every inmate has one or more personal servants, 
who have charge of his own private wants. The expense of 
keeping up such an establishment is of course very large; but 
so also are the profits of a flourishing commercial house, and 
this easeful and luxurious mode of life, while it tends to pre- 
serve health in a climate hostile to the Northern race, furnishes 
a solace, sensuous though it be, for the want of those more en- 
lightened recreations which a civilized land affords. 

o 

These little communities, nevertheless, are subject to iron 
laws of etiquette, any infraction whereof, either purposely or 
through ignoranco, makes society tremble to its foundations. A 



472 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

custom* wMcli refers particularly to strangers, has been trans- 
planted thither from India, and is now in full force. The newly- 
arrived, unless he wishes to avoid all society, must go the rounds 
of the resident families, and make his calls. The calls are re- 
turned, an invitation to dinner follows in due course of time, 
and every thing is en train for a footing of familiar intercourse. 
This custom seems to me to reverse the natural course of so- 
cial ethics. It obliges the stranger to seek his welcome, in- 
stead of having it spontaneously tendered to him. The resi- 
dents defend the practice, on the ground that it allows a man 
to choose his own society — an obvious bull, since he cannot 
know who are congenial to him until he has met them ; and on 
the other hand, the opposite course would allow them to choose 
his society or not, as they preferred. In India, among the 
Company's servants, the rule is rigidly enforced, and nothing 
creates greater scandal than a violation of it. 

There are private balls occasionally — public, rarely, if ever 
— where quadrilles, and waltzes, and polkas, are danced with as 
much spirit as at any outside the Tropics ; but there is a 
considerate departure from the etiquette of the North, in allow- 
ing the gentlemen to appear, on such occasions, in a white 
linen jacket, and with a simple ribbon in place of a cravat. 
Nay, if so minded, he may even throw wide his collar, and 
enjoy a cool throat. This barbarism — as every young lady of 
proper taste must consider it — I find highly commendable 
But it requires a great struggle in John Bull to throw down 
those starched barricades which flank his closely-rasped chin 
and protect his mutton-chop whiskers. In Calcutta, even in 
the dog-days, nothing less than a collar rigid as plank, and a 
black cloth dress-coat, is tolerated. Verily, the Saxon clings 



THE ANGLO-SAXON ABROAD. 473 

to his idols with a pertinacity which we cannot sufficiently 
admire. Make a certain costume the type of respectability 
with him, and he carries the idea all over the world. If bear- 
skins and woollen blankets were the evening costume of the 
West-End or Fifth- Avenue, you would soon iBnd him com- 
placently sporting them on the Equator. In the incessant 
heat of the Tropics he drinks his heavy sherry, and indulges 
in his brandy-and- water, with as much freedom as in the airs 
of England, and if not cut short in his career by fever, finally 
goes home with a damaged liver, and no digestion at all. On 
the shores of Cathay, he keeps up the hours and habits of the 
London season ; in the cinnamon groves of Ceylon, he breathes 
the atmosphere of Pall-Mail. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

A PICTURE OF MACAO. 

Movements of the Squadron — Cumsingmoon — Tlie Naval Hospital at Macao — Quiet 
Life — A Chinese Beggar— The Band— The Memories of Macao — Situation of the 
Town — Its Appearance — Desertion of the Place — Its Tropical Gardens — The Cam- 
po — The Temple of Wang Hj'a — Anecdote of Gushing— Society in Macao— Chinese 
All-Souls' Day — Discordant Noises — The Grotto of Camoens — The Casa Gardens — 
The Grotto at Daybreak — French Irreverence — Preparations to Return Home — 
Leaving the Naval Service — Trips to Hong-Kong and Cumsingmoon. 

We remained but two or three days at Hong-Kong : the season 
of typhoons was at hand, and it was considered advisable to 
place the squadron in some more sheltered anchorage. The 
Mississippi proceeded to Blenheim Reach, near Whampoa, 
where part of the British East India Squadron was already 
anchored ; the Susquehanna, after touching at Macao, to land 
Commodore Perry, was ordered to Cumsingmoon, about jfifteen 
miles further to the north. This is merely a small Chinese vil- 
lage, on an island of the same name, with the advantages of a 
sheltered anchorage in front of it, a healthy air and good water. 
The hills are bare and bleak in aspect, and no place could well 
be more forlorn, as a sojourn. After four days, however, the 
artists' corps received notice that rooms had been appropriated 



QUIET LIFE. 475 

to them in a building in Macao, which had been leased as a 
Naval Hospital. A Portuguese lorcha was dispatched to carry 
us and our baggage to the city, and we took leave of the good 
old Susquehanna. We had a slow but agreeable run down the 
coast, anchored in the inner harbor of Macao, and before night 
were fully installed in our new quarters. 

The Naval Hospital stood upon the centi^al ridge of the 
island, and was consequently in the highest part of the city, 
overlooking the broad Canton Grulf on one side, and on the 
other the tiled roofs of the Portuguese houses below, the inner 
harbor, with its scanty fleet of junks, lorches and tauha boats, 
and the bare, stony hills of the island beyond. In front rose a 
hill, with a deserted convent on its summit glowing in the broad 
white glare of the breathless August noons. The lower story 
of the Hospital was appropriated to the invalids, of whom 
there were about twenty, and the Commodore's band ; the sur- 
geons and artists occupie 1 the rooms above. "With A-fok as 
steward, and the market of Macao at hand, rich in fruit and 
vegetables, we fared rather better than on ship's rations and 
tough Japanese fowls, while the enclosed verandah, on 
account of its airiness, furnished admirable sleeping accommo- 
dations during the dog-days. The time passed on quietly and 
without particular incident, and I found the repose of our life 
very grateful, after the active experiences and vicissitudes of 
the past year. There was no serious duty to interfere with the 
indulgence of that tropical indolence, which is such a luxury 
after the fatigue of travel. 

Our principal annoyance was an old Chinese beggar-woman, 
who sometimes drove us to desperation with her piercing, mo- 
notonous wail, from her station in the shade of the house oppo- 



476 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

site, and no amount of " cash" (the cheapest abns in the world) 

would drive her away. She would then only howl the more 
pertinaciously for more. Nothing could have been more trying 
to the nerves than her eternal : " Chin-chin — a — a — a I poor 
man — a — a I how kin do — a — a — a / " But twice a day our 
fine brass band of twenty instruments rehearsed in the long hall 
below, usually commencing with the ringing chant of the Por- 
tuguese National Hymn. The old beggar then retired from 
the field in confusion. A few tawny Portuguese, with close- 
cropped, blue-black hair, would sometimes pause to listen as 
they passed through the almost deserted streets. The music 
awoke no chord of patriotism or pride in their breasts ; Macao 
has out-lived even that. The strain ceased, and then the rich, 
lyrical throb of " Hail Columbia" would rise exultingly into 
the still blue air, while the stars and stripes hung motionless 
from the peak of the flag-staff, at the American Consulate 
below us. Though I heard our. country's anthem every day, my 
heart beat more quick and warm under all that summer languor, 
and my thoughts would turn for a moment to the dear land on 
the other side of the world. 

I prefer Macao to any other place in China, partly on 
account of the picturesque beauty of its position, and partly 
because it is less Chinese. It has a history which attaches it 
to the history of our race ; it has human associations with 
which we can sympathize. The annals of the Ming and the 
Hang dynasties are no more to me (with the exception of the 
reign of that splendid invader, Kublai Khan,) than tliose of 
the Man in the Moon ; but the memories of Camoens, the Poet, 
and St. Francis Xavier, the Apostle, embalm Macao for ever in 
the eyes of the European race. It was the first beacon whence 



VIEW OF THE CITY. 477 

the liglit of Christianity and the liberalizing influences of com- 
merce went forth into the dark places of the East. And new, 
useless and worn out as it seems, with its commerce destroyed, 
its palaces vacant, its grandees beggared, and its importance as 
a foothold of civilization totally gone, there is a mournful 
charm in the silence of its grass-grown streets, and the memory 
of its former power and opulence still clothes it with a shadowy 
dignity. Here, at least, there are traces of Art and Taste, and 
all those monstrosities of Chinese Un-ta.ste, which would make 
China a living purgatory to any one with a keen appreciation 
of the Beautiful, are thrust into the background, and do not 
spoil the harmony of the picture. 

The Portuguese settlement of Macao comprises a ridgy 
peninsula about four miles long, attached to the southern end 
of a large Chinese island, by a narrow, sandy neck, across 
which a wall was thrown in the early days of the colony. The 
city is built in a dip of the hills, near the extremity of the penin- 
sula, and to the east faces the Roads, the usual anchorage of 
foreign shipping. It has another face on the west, looking upon 
the Inner Harbor, a narrow strait shut in by lofty islands. 
Another channel, called the Typa, between two barren islands, 
about a mile and a half to the southward, is the usual anchorage 
of vessels during the typhoon season, on account of its shel- 
tered situation. The view of the city from the Roads is very 
imposing, and with the island-mountains in the background, has 
been compared by many persons to that of Naples from the 
bay, but I could see scarcely a single point of resemblance. 
A crescent-shaped bay, nearly a mile in length, fronts the 
water, and behind the massive stone pier, or Praya, rises a row 
of stately buildings of a pale yellow or pink color. The foliage 



478 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

of tropical gardens peeps out behind them, and the ridge is 
crowned with the square-towered Cathedral and several 
churches. At the northern point is an Alameda, or public 
square, planted with trees, above which rises a fortress. Fur- 
ther to the north, on the top of a lofty hill, is the Fort of Guia, 
or Del Monte, and a larger but somewhat dismantled fortifica- 
tion looms behind, on the middle ridge of the peninsula. 

Even before landing, one notes the deserted aspect of the 
place. There are no crowds on the Praya ; the houses have a 
decaying, mouldy appearance, and you listen in vain for that 
hum of life which floats about the centres of trade or industry. 
The solitary sentry at the foot of the Portuguese flag-staff 
seems to be dozing at his post. Now and then some Chinese 
porters pass, or four servants carrying a sedan chair with all 
the blinds down. During the summer, when most of the foreign 
merchants in Canton send their families there, on account of 
the temperate sea air, many of the spacious old mansions are 
inhabited, and servants with impudent faces lounge about the 
open gateways. Were it not for the scanty revenue which they 
derive from the lease of their ancestral palaces, many of the 
old Portuguese families would be entirely destitute. Indeed, 
it is already a mystery how some of them contrive to exist. 
Piece by piece the old plate, and diamond by diamond the old 
jewels are sold, while the parsimony of the household belies 
the appearance of wealth which still lingers about the massive 
buildings and the luxuriant gardens. 

These fine old gardens are the greatest ornament of the city, 
hiding its dilapidation, and recalling, in the care and taste 
which they have not wholly outgrown, those which adorn the 
cities of Southern Spain. Although the winters are wet and 



THE CAMPO. 479 

cold, all the hardier varieties of tropical fruits thrive well, and 
even the mango, the papaya and the guava are found in the 
markets. On the garden-terraces, in the upper part of the 
city, whence you have a charming panorama of the island-stud- 
ded gulf, the spiry cypress and the orange of Portugal mingle 
their foliage with the palm, the bamboo and the Indian banyan. 
In August, the high walls which enclose them are festooned 
with enormous masses of the night-blooming cereus, whose 
milky blossoms, a foot in diameter, diffuse a sweet and powerful 
odor. Around the fountains the sacred lotus opens its sunny 
cup, tipped with as pure a rose as summer daybreak can show. 
The lagistrcemia, with its soft, crape-like racemes of white or 
crimson, and the burning scarlet of the pomegranate flower, star 
the deep green masses of foliage. Nature is always luxurious 
within the Tropics. 

Two gates in the northern wall of the city lead to what is 
called the Campo — an open, cultivated tract of country sepa- 
rated by a bleak ridge from the sandy flat which divides the 
Portuguese territories from the Chinese. The Campo is tra- 
versed by an excellent road, uniting with a new one which has 
been cut along the face of the bluffs on the eastern side of the 
island. The two combined form an agreeable drive, and every 
evening towards sunset, all who possess or are rich enough to 
hire a horse or equipage, may be seen taking their way along the 
Praya to the Alameda, and thence striking out on the course of 
the Campo. This drive of three or four miles, with a gallop 
over the sands to the Chinese barrier, is a grateful release to 
the Canton merchant, and in comparison with the confinement 
of his hongs, the Campo appears as boundless and as free as an 
Illinois prairie. The fort of Guia, with a steep zigzag path 



480 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

leading up to its battlements, towers high over it, on the east ; 
on the opposite side the Chinese village of Wang-Hya, lies em- 
bedded in bamboo and Indian fig-trees ; over a level covered 
with rice -fields a.nd vegetable gardens, stretches a wide blue 
arm of the bay, and the mountains of the western island lean 
away to the south, disclosing other channels and other islands 
beyond. 

I paid a visit to Wang-Hya (or in the Macao dialect, 
Mong-ha), which gives its name to the treaty concluded between 
the United States and China, under the auspices of our great 
mandarin Cushing (Coo-Shing, a genuine Chinese name), and 
the Commissioner Keying. The signing of this treaty and the 
festivities consequent thereupon, took place in the great tem- 
ple of Wang-Hya — a large building of gray granite, rather 
more simple and tasteful in its architecture than Chinese tem- 
ples usually are. In fact, but for the enormous misshapen 
gods, glaring all over with vermillion and gilding, those mas- 
Bive courts and heavy, overhanging roofs, shaded by the broad 
arms of several giant Indian fig-trees, would afford a very 
pleasing picture. There is a Macao legend to the effect that, 
when Cushing went out in state to meet Keying, he was at- 
tended by the Portuguese band belonging to the Governor, and 
that the drum-major of the band made such an impression upon 
the Chinese authorities by his portly size, and the glitter of his 
full-dress uniform, that they imagined him to be the American 
mandarin, and wasted several profound salutations upon him 
before the mistake was discovered. 

As for amusements in Macao, there were none except the 
daily stroll on the Praya and ride in the Campo, with an occa- 
eional dinner or dance. The Grovernor, Senhor G-uimaraes, was 



CHINESE ALL SOUl's DAY. 481 

an urbane and polished gentleman, and entertained frequently, 
and there were a few Portuguese families who still kept up 
something of the old state. The theatre, a reminiscence of 
the palmy days of Macao, had long been closed, but was again 
opened for a concert given by our band, who made Macao ring 
with such music as had not been heard for years. The bugle- 
players belonging to the Portuguese garrison are very fine, but 
the Grovernor's band would scarcely be tolerated any where 
else. By the Commodore's permission, our band performed on 
the Alameda every Thursday evening, and all Macao went 
there in the moonlight to look upon the sparkling bay, and drink, 
with thirsty ears, the sweet strains. 

During my stay, the Chinese residents celebrated their great 
religious festival — a sort of All Soul's Day, or worship paid col- 
lectively to all the gods and saints in their mythology, their own 
ancestors included. It is a convenient way of lumping together 
a number of minor worships, and wiping out with one grand 
stroke the delinquencies of the year; and the essence of the 
Chinese religion not being love of God, but fear of the devil, 
they manage to propitiate their neglected Satans by a terrific 
thumping of tom-toms, and a fizzle and splutter of fireworks, 
which lasts three days. On the occasion, they constructed a 
large framework on the Praya, which was covered with miLs- 
lins, silks, and spangled paper, so as to represent the shrine of 
a temple. It was about 15 feet high, by 30 in length, and 
hung with lamps of every quality and fashion, from Bohemian 
crystal to horn and mica. A variety of hideous divinities, with 
black or copper-colored faces, squatted on shrines or stood stifiy 
erect in niches; and in a recess at one end, three or four noisi- 
dans made an infernal din with gongs, tom-toms and long hoi- 
21 



482 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

low bamboos wliicli emitted shrieks tliat made your nerves 
quiver. I doubt if the word " harmony " is to be found in the 
Chinese language. Not even the sense of a rhythm could be 
extracted from the dreadful discord, but each instrument of 
torture raved in its own way, regardless of the others. What 
must be the nature of those who take delight in such sounds ? 

The loveliest spot in Macao is the garden and grotto of 
Camoens, and thither the stranger first turns his steps. Dur- 
ing my first visit there, in March, it was the only thing I saw. 
The Susquehanna was to leave for Shanghai early in the morn- 
ing, and as there was a chance that I might not return, I suc- 
ceeded, with much difficulty, in making the swarthy landlord of 
the " National Hotel " comprehend what it was that I wanted 
to see. He called me before daybreak, and gave me an old 
Chinaman as guide to the place. We threaded a number of 
crooked streets in the dusk, passed the facade of an eminent 
Jesuit church, which was destroyed by fire, and at length 
reached a little grassy square on the hill, in the north-western 
corner of the city. By dint of knocking and calling, my guide 
aroused a sleepy servant, who opened agate and admitted me 
into a trim parterre, redolent of rose and jessamine, and open- 
ing into a deep garden, wherein the shadows still lingered 
thick and dark under the trees. A large and stately mansion 
now occupies the site of the Franciscan Convent in which 
Camoens lived. The property belongs to Count Salvi, who has 
offered it for sale, for the sum of $5,000, without finding a 
purchaser. 

I took my way at random through the garden, seeking, in 
ll e gray morning twilight, for the grotto whose shelter gave 
"birt ^ to the " Lusiad." It was a wilderness of large trees, 



AN EXILED POET. 483 

made still more intricate in some places bj a thick under- 
growth, and the rank parasitic vines "which clung from bough 
to bough. It followed the slope of the hill, terraced here and 
there, while the highest part was overhung by immense granite 
boulders, heaped one upon the other, till the topmost masses 
towered above the trees. I found an aviary with a dead tree 
in it, showing that birds had once been there ; a fountain, dry 
and cracking to pieces ; and finally, noticing a small chapel 
reared upon a rock in the thickest part of the wood, was led to 
the object of my search. The grotto is simply a natural portal 
formed by three great boulders of grey granite, within whose 
arch the poet found shade and coolness and privacy. It is not 
a cavern of Jeremiah, to feed austere thoughts and gloomy 
prophecies, but a grotto just too stern not to be Arcadian and 
idyllic. The portal is now closed at each end by an iron grat- 
ing, and within it stands a bronze bust of the poet, elevated on 
a lofty pedestal, containing three stanzas from the Lusiad, in 
bronze letters. The dawn gradually brightened, as I stood 
beside the grating; the darkness under the trees faded into 
twilight, but the features of the poet were not discernible in the 
gloom which filled the recess. Fit monument to him, who 
turned into glory the shame of banishment and the sorrow of 
exile — who made the power and the injustice of the land that 
gave him birth alike immortal ! 

I frequently went there afterwards by daylight, but the 
genus loci was less distinct and impressive than in that silent 
morning hour. The Chevalier di Rienzi, a Frenchman who 
styles himself, " poete exile," has had a tablet cut upon the 
rock beside the grotto, and a poem of his own in praise of Cam- 
oens inscribed upon it. The poem is good, considering that it 



484 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

is French, and if the Chevalier di Rienzi had a name in liter- 
ature, we might pardon, and even approve, his desire to couple 
it with the illustrious Camoens. To me, who never heard of 
him before, the deed is presumptuous and profane ; though a 
thousand times less so than some French doggerel upon Cam- 
oens written in the visitor's book. From the terrace on the 
western side of the garden there are lovely views of the inner 
harbor, especially towards sunset; and the " Casa Gardens," as 
they are called, are a frequent resort of the foreign residents at 
that hour. 

My days passed away quietly and indolently enough, 
through the remainder of August. The thermometer ranged 
from 80° to 93° in the shade, and the sun, hanging directly in 
the zenith at noon, poured down a flood of white heat. Macao 
seemed wholly deserted at such times, notwithstanding its 
society was larger and more animated than usual. I began to 
make preparations for returning home, a course which was ren- 
dered necessary by my long absence. The fact of my having 
entered the service bound me for the entire cruise, but Commo- 
dore Perry, with his usual kindness, on learning that a prolonged 
absence would be a serious disadvantage to me, gave me leave 
to resign. I desired to return by way of San Francisco, but as 
no vessel was then up for that port, I changed my plans and 
took passage for New York in the clipper ship Sea Serpent^ 
Captain Howland, which was announced to sail from Whampoa 
on the 9th of September. 

I made a trip to ITong-Kong to draw some funds from the 
Oriental Bank, and had the satisfaction of receiving ^347 for a 
letter of credit on London for $500. In returning I took a 
samjpan^ as the Chinese boats are called, and made the run to 



TRIP TO CUMSINGMOON. 485 

Macao in five hours and a half, at the risk of falling into the 
hands of the pirates who infest the Lemma and Lin-tin Islands. 
I also went up to Cumsingmoon, in the fast boat of old Eyok, 
who supplied the squadrou with fresh provisions, and passed 
another night on board the dear old Susquehanna. I began to 
love the very timbers of the staunch frigate that had been my 
home, more or less, for six months, and I felt a keen pang on 
moving away from her huge black hull and the gallant souls 
within it. May prosperous breezes attend her and them, wher- 
ever they sail 1 



CHAPTER XL. 

8CE]!5es in and abound canton. 

Increase of the Squadron— Disposition of the Vessels— Passage to Canton— First View 
of the City— The Foreign Factories— Old and New China Streets— Talking " Fi- 
geon English '' — The Great Temple of Honan — Ceremonies of the Priests — Sacred 
Books and Pigs — The Lotus Blossom — Dwellings of the Priests — A Eetired Ab- 
bot — Opium Smoking in Cliina — The Opium-Pipe — Flavor and Fascination of the 
Drug— Its Effects— A Walk around Canton— The Walls— Entering the City— For- 
eign Devils— A Tea-House— Beyond the Suburbs— A Chinese Panorama— The 
Feast of Lanterns — Dr. Parker's Hospital— The Eve of Departure. 

By tlie end of August, all the vessels of the squadron had 
arrived in China, with the exception of the store-ship Lexing- 
ton. The Ilacedonian, Vandalia and Southampton were sent 
to the anchorage at Cumsingmoon, whither the Powhatan^ 
which returned to Hong-Kong on the 25th, also proceeded. 
She was detained eight days at Loo-Choo, in order to remedy 
a slight defect in one of her engines. The store-ship Supply^ 
arrived at Hong-Kong on the 27th, having touched at Amoy 
on her way from Loo-Choo. Canton was in a very unsettled 
state, and the foreign merchants anticipated trouble, on account 
of the spread of the rebellion. All the American firms 
addressed a letter to Commodore Perry, begging that a national 
vessel might be sent up to the Macao Passage, within a mile 
and a half of the factories. The Supply was therefore ordered 



FIRST VIEW OF CANTON. 487 

up tlie river, as all the other vessels of the sqnadron drew too 
much water to pass the bar. Our great steam frigates certainly 
contributed to our success in Japan, but they are nearly use- 
less for service in the Chinese waters. 

I took the anchor from my cap on the 5th of September, 
after four months' service, and in the evening of the same day 
bade adieu to my messmates and embarked on board the steamer 
for Canton. Mr. Contee, the Flag-Lieutenant of the Squadron, 
who had procured leave of absence on account of ill-health and 
had also taken passage on the Sea Serpent, accompanied me. 
It was after sunset when we left, and my last glimpse of Macao 
was the dark silhouette of its hills against the fading sky. We 
had an indistinct night-view of the Bogue Forts, at the Bocea 
Tigris, or mouth of the Whampoa River, after which I sought 
a couch on one of the hard benches in the cabin, but failed 
to extract much repose from it. 

The steamer did not reach her destination until daybreak 
the next morning. Consequently, whatever there may be of the 
picturesque or striking in the approach to Canton, was lost tc 
me. As the rapid dawn of the South brightened into sunrise, 
I found that we were anchored in the middle of the stream 
between the foreign Factories and the famous temple of Honan. 
The Pearl Kiver, at this place, is not more than a quarter of a 
mile wide, and thickly studded with junks, flower-boats and 
those crowded hulks which contain the "floating population" — 
an important item in the census of the city. What little can 
be seen of the native part of Canton from this point, is low and 
mean, unrelieved by a single pagoda. The foreign Factoriea 
on the contrary, inclosing a parallelogram of three or four 
acres, which extends down to the river, are substantial blocks 



488 INDIA, CHINA, 

of buijdmgs, four stories in heiglit. The open space has been 
turned into a Botanical Garden, which is kept in excellent 
order, as it affords the residents their only chance for agreeable 
exercise, except that of boating on the river. In this garden 
four lofty flag-staffs, planted at regular intervals, display the 
colors of America, France, England and Denmark, and in the 
centre a neat Gothic Chapel stands on the site of the old Hog- 
Lane, renowned during the troubles of 1841. The factories 
are divided into different " hongs" — English, American, Danish, 
&c. — but the foreign community is crowded into narrow 
bounds, hemmed in on all sides by the jealousy of the native 
authorities, and a five minutes' walk will embrace its utmost 
limits. 

Adjacent to the factories are the streets occupied by the 
Chinese " hong merchants," whose dealings are almost wholly 
with foreigners, and the markets and shops of mechanics, which 
depend on foreign custom. The most noted thoroughfares are 
Old and New China-streets, and Looking-Glass and Spectacle- 
streets, which in their quaint forms and brilliant coloring, their 
gay, bustling and lively aspect, resemble the bazaars of Orien- 
tal cities. They are narrow, the houses two stories in height, 
with projecting roofs, the fronts of a dark blue or green color, 
with a mixture of bright red, and still further relieved by the 
gilded hieroglyphics which cover the vertical swinging signs. 
In Old and New China-streets there are also English signs 
which inform you that A-Kow or Hu-ping deals in silks, or 
porcelain, or lacquered ware, or ivory, or mother-of-pearl, or 
sandal-wood, or silver. The predominant talent of the Chinese 
is their faculty of imitation, and since their intercourse with 
foreigners has become less restricted, they have been obliged to 



PIGEON ENGLISH. 489 

abandon many of their former grotesque mo.lels and accept 
others more consonant with a civilized taste. This is shown in 
the patterns of their silks, the form and style of their articles 
in silver and ivory, and their furniture. The display in their 
shops is tempting to a stranger, but purchases were ruinous at 
a crisis, when money commanded fifty per cent, premium at 
Canton, and seventy-five per cent, at Shanghai. 

Whoever first invented the " pigeon English," as it is called 
— the jargon used by foreigners in their intercourse with Chi- 
nese — deserves an immortality of ridicule. The jargon has 
now become so fixed, that it will take several generations to 
eradicate it. The Chinaman requires as much practice to 
learn it as he would to learn correct English, while the English- 
man, in his turn, must pick it up as he would a new language. 
Fancy, for instance, a man going into one of the silverware 
shops in New China-street, and saying, " My wantye two piece 
snuff-box : can secure ? " when his meaning is simply — " I want 
two snuff-boxes : can you get them ? " To which A-Wing 
gravely answers : " Can secure." Or, another declaring : " My 
no savey that pigeon" — which signifies in English : " I don't 
understand the business." If you make inquiries at a hotel, 
you must ask : " What man have got top-side ? " (who are up 
stairs ? ) and the Chinese servant will make answer : " Two 
piece captain, one piece joss-man, have got." (There are two 
captains and a clergyman.) It was some time before I could 
bring myself to make use of this absurd and barbarous lingo, 
and it was always very unpleasant to hear it spoken by a lady. 

As far as sight-seeing is concerned, Canton has very little 
to offer the traveller, and I was so thoroughly surfeited with 
China that I made no effort to see more than the most promi- 



490 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

nent objects. Mr. Wells Williams and the Bev. Mr. Bonney 
were kind enough to accompany me through, the Temple of 
Honan, on the opposite side of the river. This is a place of 
great sanctity, embracing within its bounds a well-endowed 
college of Boodhist priests. There are a number of temples, 
or rather shrines of the gods, standing within enclosed courts, 
which are shaded by large and venerable trees. We first passed 
through a portal, placed in advance, like the pylon of an Egyp- 
tian temple, with a colossal figure on each side, of the watch- 
ers or guardians of the edifice. With their distended abdo- 
mens, copper faces and fierce black eyeballs, they might very 
well have passed for Gog and Magog. The temples were mas- 
sive square structures, with peaked roofs, containing colossal 
gilded statues of various divinities, most of whom were seated 
cross-legged, with their hands on their stomachs and a grin of 
ineffable good-humor on their faces. They were no doubt rep- 
resented as having dined well, and therefore the more easily to 
be propitiated. We reached the main temple in time to wit- 
ness the rites of the Boodhist priests. Numerous candles 
and "joss-sticks" of sandal- wood were burning at the feet of 
the vast statues, and the shaven-headed priests, thirty or forty 
in number, walked solemnly in a circle around the open space 
before them, chanting their hymns. The character of the chants 
was very similar to some of those used in the Roman Catholic 
service, and there were other features in the ceremonies of the 
priests which showed the same resemblance. I believe this 
fact has been noticed by other travellers. 

After the chanting was concluded, the priests came out in 
single file and passed into the large building which they inhab* 
ited in common. Some of them paused to speak with Mr 



THE LOTUS BLOSSOM. 491 

Bonney, wlio was known to them, and whom they seemed to 
regard without the least animosity, notwithstanding his mis- 
sionary character. We then entered a labyrinth of smaller 
buildings, in one of which was a printing establishment, where 
the legends of Boodhism were multiplied in great quantities. 
Many of the books were illustrated with curious wood-cuts. 
A little further, we came upon the stable of the sacred hogs, 
and were allowed a look at the venerated animals. Alas ! like 
many humans, their swinish nature was only increased and 
intensified by their exalted station. Very slothful and greedy 
were they. 

The temple, without its various attendant edifices, courts 
and gardens, covers an area of forty-two acres. The garden, 
however, is a mere vegetable patch, with a pond of the sacred 
lotus in the midst. Several of these superb plants were in 
bloom, and we bribed a laborer to wade out into the slimy pool 
and procure us a few blossoms. The slender stem, five feet in 
length, upholds a broad cup, as elegant in form as the Warwick 
Vase, and about eight inches in diameter, whei^ fully expanded. 
The leaves have the velvety whiteness of alabaster, veined 
with delicate pencillings of the purest rose-color, and in tho 
centre lies the fruit, an inverted cone of pale green, surrounded 
with a fringe of golden anthers. The perfume has that fresh 
and healthy sweetness which never cloys the sense. The Hose 
may be a queen among flowers, but the Lotus, sublime in its 
purity, grace and exquisite beauty, is a goddess. How gorgeous 
a show must its blossoms make, on the White Nile, where, at 
the first ray of sunrise, tens of thousands flash open all at 
once, along leagues of shore ! 

Beyond the pool was a little copse, in which stood a small 



492 INDIA, 

building, ^sed in the incremation of the dead priests. It was 
a simple chamber, with a small entrance, and vents for the 
escape of the smoke. The body is placed on a funeral pile, 
which is replenished until the flesh is roasted into cinders and 
the bones calcined into dust. On our way back to the river, 
we passed through the habitation of the priests, taking a look 
at their kitchens and refectories. A number of the younger 
brethren gathered around us, lusting strongly after the carnal 
gratification of cigars, and my whole stock was soon divided 
among them. Mr. Bonney took me to visit a former abbot, a 
man of much learning, who was then living in a quiet way, on 
a pension. He received us with much cordiality, and showed 
us his bachelor establishment of three rooms and a little gar- 
den, which were kept in great neatness and order. He was 
about sixty years of age, and his pale face, calm eye and high, 
retreating brow, spoke of a serene and studious life. In an 
inner chamber, however, I noticed one of those couches which 
are used by the opium-smokers, and the faint, subtle odor of the 
drug still hung about the furniture and the walls. 

In spite of the penalties attached to it by Chinese law, the 
smoking of opium is scarcely a concealed practice at present. 
I have seen it carried on in open shops in Shanghai, where 
there are some streets which are never free from the sickening 
smell. It had always been my intention to make a trial of the 
practice, in order to learn its effects by personal experience, 
and being now on the eve of leaving China, I applied to a gen- 
tleman residing in Canton, to put me in the way of enjoying a 
pipe or two. He was well acquainted with a Chinaman who 
was addicted to the practice, and by an agreement with him, 
took me to his house one evening. We were ushered into a 



SMOKING OPIUM. 493 

long room, with a divan, or platform about three feet high, at 
the further end. Several Chinamen were in the room, and oiie, 
stretched out on the platform, was preparing his pipe at a 
lamp. The host invited me to stretch myself opposite to him, 
and place my head upon one of those cane head-stools which 
serve the Chinese in lieu of pillows. 

The opium-pipe is a bamboo stick, about two feet long, 
having a small drum inserted near the end, with an aperture 
in its centre. A piece of opium, about twice the size of a pin's 
head, is taken up on a slender wire and held in the flame of 
the lamp until it boils or bubbles up, when it is rolled into a 
cylindrical shape on the drum, by the aid of the wire. It 
loses its dark color by the heating and becomes pale and soft. 
Having been sufficiently rolled, it is placed over the aperture, 
and the wire, after being thrust through its centre, to allow 
the air to pass into the pipe, is withdrawn. The pipe is then 
held to the flame, and as the opium burns, its fumes are drawn 
into the lungs by a strong and long-continued inspiration. In 
about half a minute the portion is exhausted, and the smoker 
is ready for a second pipe. 

To my surprise I found the taste of the drug as delicious 
as its smell is disagreeable. It leaves a sweet, rich flavor, like 
the finest liquorice, upon the palate, and the gentle stimulus it 
communicates to the blood in the lungs, fills the whole body 
with a sensation of warmth and strength. The fumes of the 
opium are no more irritating to the windpipe or bronchial 
tubes, than common air, while they seem imbued with a rich- 
ness of vitality far beyond our diluted oxygen. I had supposed 
that opium was smoked entirely for the purpose of mental ex- 
hilaration, and that to the smokers, as to many who intoxicate 



494 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

themselyes witli ardent spirits, there was no sensual gratifica- 
tion in the mere taste of the article. The reverse is undoubtedly 
the truth, and the practice, therefore, is doubly dangerous. 
Its victim becomes hopelessly involved in its fascinating illu- 
sions, and an awful death, such as I had witnessed not long 
before, is sure, sooner or later, to overtake him who indulges to 
excess. I have a pretty strong confidence in my own powers 
of resistance, but do not desire to make the experiment a 
second time. 

Beyond the feeling of warmth, vigor and increased vitality, 
softened by a happy consciousness of repose, there was no efi"ect, 
until after finishing the sixth pipe. My spirits then became 
joyously excited, with a constant disposition to laugh ; bril- 
liant colors floated before my eyes, but in a confused and cloudy 
way, sometimes converging into spots like the eyes in a pea- 
cock's tail, but oftenest melting into and through each other, 
like the hues of changeable silk. Had the physical excitement 
been greater, they would have taken form and substance, but 
after smoking nine pipes I desisted, through fear of subject- 
ing myself to some unpleasant after-effect. Our Chinese host 
informed me that he was obliged to take twenty pipes, in order 
to elevate his mind to the pitch of perfect happiness. I went 
home feeling rather giddy, and became so drowsy, with slight 
qualms at the stomach, that I went to bed at an early hour. 
I had made an arrangement to walk around the walls of Can- 
ton the next morning, with Mr. Bonney, and felt some doubt 
as to whether I should be able to undertake it ; but, after a 
deep and refreshing sleep, I arose at sunrise, feeling stronger 
and brighter than I had done for weeks past. 

The walls of Canton are about eight miles in cireuiii 



IN THE STREETS OF CANTON. 495 

This is but a umited extent for a city, which contains upwards 
of a million of inhabitants, and more than half the population 
probably live without the walls, on the side next the river 
In those dark, narrow, and crooked streets which lie behind 
the factories, the swarm of human beings is uninterrupted from 
the earliest dawn until late in the night. We set out at an 
hour when few of the Europeans were stirring, and the streets 
were already so crowded that it was difficult to avoid contact 
with the porters and water-carriers — a contact to be shunned 
at all hazards. Though there was less noisome filth than in the 
streets of Shanghai, more senses than one were offended, and I 
felt much relieved when, after a walk of more than two miles, 
we came into a less thickly settled quarter. ' A Chinese city is 
the greatest of all abominations, and one ceases to wonder at 
the physical deformity, or the monstrous forms of licentious- 
ness, which are to be found among the lower classes of the na- 
tives, when he has seen the manner in which they live. / 

Our road in many places skirted the wall, which is of 
brick, about twenty-five feet high, and with a machicolated pa- 
rapet. At the angles there is sometimes a rude square bastion, 
surmounted by an ornamental edifice — probably a pleasure- 
house belonging to gardens within. We passed several gates, 
into all of which I looked, but could not see that the streets 
within differed in the least from those without. Near the 
south-eastern corner Mr. Bonney entered suddenly, I following, 
and we passed across the angle and out at another gate, without 
any one attempting to hinder us. While we were in the neigh- 
borhood of the factories, we were allowed to pursue our way 
unnoticed, but in the straggling suburbs on the eastern side, 
we were frequently hailed with the insulting cry of "Fan- 



496 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

"kwei I ^ (Foreign Devil !) One old man, who was at work in 
Iiis shop, made an exclamation as we passed, which Mr. Bon- 
ney translated thus : " I lifted up my eyes, and behold ! two 
devils suddenly appeared before me ! " One of these devils 
however belied the character given him, by carrying with him 
a bundle of Christian tracts, which he distributed with a lib- 
eral hand, every one, old or young, male or female, accepting 
them with great willingness. They are too willing in fact. 
The carelessness with which they take every thing that is of- 
fered them shows a lack of respect for their own faith, an ab- 
sence of that inherent devotional spirit, which alone can serve 
as the groundwork of their Christianization. 

At a gate near the north-eastern corner, we stopped at a 
tea-house to take some refreshment. A company of Chinese 
of the middle class in the white garb of mourning, were wait- 
ing there to attend the funeral of some friend. The host 
brought us steaming cups of tea or rather tea-stew, very strong 
and invigorating, and a crisp sort of cake seasoned with pork 
and sugar. Some of the Chinese entered into conversation 
with Mr. Bonney, in a good-humored friendly way, but one 
young dandy stretched himself upon the bench beside our ta- 
ble, and indulged in some contemptuous remarks on foreigners. 
I was well satisfied to be ignorant of the language, for his man- 
ner was so insolent, that I could not have replied with the 
same mildness and prudence as my companion. 

The suburbs now ceased, and the open cultivated country 
reached to the foot of the city wall. To the east extended a 
fertile plain, dotted with villages, as far as the White Cloud 
Hills, whose barren summits arose in the distance. We kept 
on, up a little valley to some springs under a hill on the north- 



VIEW FROM THE FORT, 497 

ern side of the city, whicli supply the only good water to bo 
had. They gush up, strong and abundant, from the bottom of 
the dell, which was crowded with water-carriers, going to and 
from the gates. The hill is crowned with a fort which com- 
pletely commands the city. It was taken without difficulty 
by Lord Gough, during the English war, and every prepa- 
ration was made to open a bombardment, when the ransom of 
$5,000,000, tendered by the Chinese merchants, was offered and 
accepted. There is now a small garrison within it, but the sen- 
tinel who stood at the entrance, hastily retreated within the 
walls as we approached, and did not make his appearance again 
until after we had left. 

The view from the fort is very fine, taking in all of Canton, 
the course of the Pearl Eiver from Whampoa to the mountain- 
ous region in the west, the White Cloud Hills, and the rich 
delta of the river, stretching away to the Bocca Tigris. The 
mountains which surround this wide landscape are bleak and 
barren, and contrast strongly with the garden-like beauty of the 
plain. The broad arms of the river, dotted with boats and 
junks ; the many villages, half-hidden among groves of fruit 
trees; the lofty pagodas that rise here and there from the 
banks ; and the crowded city itself directly under the eye — 
the central point which unites the interest of all these scattered 
objects — combine to form a panorama unique but thoroughly 
Chinese in its character, and affording as good a type of Chinese 
scenery as is readily accessible to foreigners. The northern 
part of Canton rests upon the side of a hill, whose summit is 
crowned by a great square red temple four stories in height. 
A slender pagoda, towards the river, is the only other prominent 
architectural object. About one third of the space with the 



498 

walls is' taken up with gardens. We did not remain long upon 
the hill, which is in bad repute, on account of the robberies 
committed in its vicinity. After descending to a little village, 
and passing several wet fields of lotus and the taro plant, we 
came again to the filth and crowds of the outer city, and finally 
reached our starting-point, after an absence of three hours. 

The Feast of Lanterns (as it is called, though incorrectly 
by foreigners) was celebrated during my visit, but with much 
less splendor than usual, on account of the disturbed state of 
society. The flower-boats on the river were all ablaze with 
lamps, and the shops in the principal streets were gaily illumi- 
nated. There were also "sing-songs" (theatrical performan- 
ces), discordant instruments of noise, and other sources of Chi- 
nese pleasure, but the whole display was irregular, barbaric, 
and utterly devoid of grand effect. When I called to mind 
the fiery mosques of Constantinople, and the cannon thunders 
of the Night of Predestination, the Feast of Lanterns seemed 
a farce in comparison. 

I was much interested in a visit to Dr. Parker's Chinese 
Hospital. Some idea of the good accomplished by this institu- 
tion may be gathered from the fact, that since its establishment 
more than forty-nine thousand persons have been admitted. 
Dr. Parker himself is a very accomplished surgeon ; his gal- 
lery of portraits exhibiting the tumors which he has removed, 
and the collection of stones which illustrates his skill in lithot- 
omy, would be treasures to the Museum of a Medical College. 
His operations in lithotomy, especially, have been remarkably 
successful, as he has lost lout four out of, I believe, thirty-two 
patients. 

While in Canton I enjoyed the hospitality of Mr. Gideon 



LEAVING CHINA. 499 

Nye, Jr., one of the prominent American merchants, who is well 
known at home through his taste for Art. My stay was very 
pleasant and interesting, and I could have agreeably prolonged 
it ; but I was not sorry when my last night on Chinese soil 
arrived. The reader may have rightly conjectured that I am 
not partial to China, but this much I must admit : it is the 
very best country in the world — to leave. 



C H APT E E XLI, 

THE INDIAN ISLES. 

Farewell to China— Whampoa— A Musical Good-Bye— The Bogue Forts— The Last 
Link— The China Sea— Life on the Sea Serpent— The Straits of Mindoro— I'ictu- 
resque Islands — Calm Sailing— Moonlight in the Tropics — "Summer Isles of Eden" 
—The Sooloo Sea— The Cagayanes Islands— Straits of Basilan— Mindanao— A Na- 
tive Proa— The Sea of Celebes — Entering the Straits of Macassar— Crossing the 
Equator— Oflf Celebes— Lazy Life— The Java Sea— Passing the Thousand Islands- 
Approach to the Straits of Sunda. 

On tlie morning of the 9tli of September we left Canton in 
the Macao steamer, wMcli had been chartered to tow the Sea 
Serpent out to sea. We went swiftly down the crowded stream, 
passing the Factories, the temple of Ho-nan, and the floating 
houses of the aquatic Cantonese, and soon reached the long 
stretch of green paddy-fields ext<3nding to Whampoa. The day 
was shady, but with a soft, cool, clear atmosphere, which mel- 
lowed and deepened the rich colors of the landscape. The White 
Cloud Hills rose high over the undulating region between, 
which, with its groves, villages and tall pagodas, refreshed the 
eye, but took not the least hold on the heart. I found myself 
admiring its beauty with a cold, passionless appreciation, un- 
connected with the slightest regret at leaving it, or the least 



A MUSICAL GOOD-BYE. 501 

wish to behold it again. There may be scenes in Ch'na fail? 
to look upon, but they are ennobled by no lofty human interest, 
lighted by no gleam of poetry or art. 

Near the mouth of Lob Creek we passed a ^all pagoda, 
and another within a mile or two of Whampoa, crowning the 
top of a verdant knoll. The latter was built of dark-red 
stone, and with the ivy and wild shrubs waving from the horned 
roofs of its nine stories, was really a picturesque object. The 
shipping of Whampoa was now visible, and in less than half an 
hour we lay alongside of the good clipper which was thence- 
forth to be our ocean home. Whampoa is a long, scattering 
Chinese town, on the southern bank of the river. The foreign 
vessels anchored in the reach, for a distance of more than a 
mile, give the place a lively air, and the low, conical hills 
which rise from the shore, crowned here and there with Chinese 
buildings, relieve the tameness of the swampy soil on which 
the town is built. We were obliged to wait for the flood-tide, 
which detained us two hours. 

The anchor was cheerily lifted at last, and we got tinder way 
for New York. In going down the river we had a fair view 
of all the vessels of war anchored in Blenheim Reach, which 
was only half a mile distant, on our right. The Mississippi 
lay nearest to us, and as we drew near the opening of the 
reach one of her boats appeared, with the band on board, float- 
ing side by side with us, while they played our stirring national 
airs. It was a parting compliment from Capt. Lee to Lieut. 
Contee. The Sea Serpent's crew gathered on the forecastle, 
gave three hearty cheers, which the Mississippi's men answered 
with a will, standing up in the boat. This was our last glimpse 
of naval !ifa, and a fitting farewell to the service. I looked in 



502 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

vain for tlie Susquelianna, wMcli -was expected from Cumsing- 
moun, but she had not arrived. I would have given much for 
another sight of her big hull and familiar spars ; and, better 
still, for a hail from some of her jolly men. 

The river now became broader and frequently expanded on 
either side into great arms, some of which extended for many 
miles into the country. We passed the first bar, which was 
created by the Chinese sinking junks to prevent the English 
from reaching Canton. A high hill on the southern shore, near 
the second bar, which we reached about 5 p. m., is crowned 
with a pagoda 150 feet high, which is visible at a great dis- 
tance. Beyond this, the river again expands, to be finally 
contracted into a narrow pass, at the Bocca Tigris, which we 
fortunately reached before dusk. It is a fine, bold gateway, 
formed by two mountainous islands, which leave a passage of 
about half a mile between them. There are several Chinese 
batteries on either hand, but they are more formidable in 
appearance than in reality. 

By the time we had passed the Bogue, it was dark. The 
tide was now in our favor, and we stood away towards Lintin. 
We had a large number of friends, including Messrs. Nye and 
Tuckerman of Canton, at dinner in the cabin, but about 10 p. 
M. they all bade us good-bye and returned aboard the steamer. 
We were cast ofi" a little after midnight, and taking a north- 
east wind ran down past the Ladrones at the rate of ten knots 
an hour. When I went on deck in the morning, China was no 
longer visible. The weather was dull and rainy, but we con- 
tinued to make good progress. On the afternoon of the 12th, 
by which time we had made 300 miles, a violent squall came 
on, tearing our maintop-gallant sail and jib into ribbons. Heavy 



LIFE ON THE BEA SERPENT. 603 

Bbowers of rain succeeded, and during the night the wind grad- 
ually settled into the reg-ular south-west monsoon. By noon the 
following day, we were in Lat. 14° 54^ N. — -consequently south 
of the Paracel Reefs, and beyond the latitude of violent 
typhoons. As the wind still blew steadily from the south-west, 
Captain Howland determined to change his course and make 
for the Straits of Mindoro, Basilan and Macassar, hoping to 
get the south-east trade wind in the Java Sea, and thus make 
a better run to Angier than by slowly beating down the China 
Sea. 

I found the Sea Serpent an excellent sea-boat, in every 
respect. She behaved admirably on a wind, slipping through 
the water so softly that we would not have suspected the speed 
she made. Although so sharp in the bows, she was very dry, 
scarcely a spray flying over the forecastle. In addition to 
Lieut. Contee and myself, there was but one other passenger, 
Mr. Parkman of Boston. Capt. Howland was accompanied by 
his wife and child. The officers were intelligent and obliging, 
and our party, though small, was large enough to be agreeable. 
We were all well satisfied with the prospect of a cruise among 
the Indian Isles, and therefore welcomed the Captain's decision. 

At sunset, on the 14th, we made land ahead, at a considerable 
distance. As the passage required careful navigation, on account 
of its abundant reefs, we stood oflf and on until the next morn- 
ing. Passing the North and North-west Rocks, the mountain- 
ous island of Busvagon, or Camelianes, opened to the south 
and east, its lofty hills, and deep, picturesque valleys clothed in 
eternal green. The rocky islets which bristled between us and 
its shores exhibited the most striking peculiarities of form and 
structure. Some shot upwards like needless or obelisks from 



504 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

the dark-blue sea ; others rose in heavy masses, like the turrets 
or bastions of a fortress, crowned with tufts of shrubbery. The 
rock of which they were formed was of a dark slate color, in 
vertical strata, which appeared to have been violently broken 
off at the top, bearing a strong resemblance to columnar basalt. 

Busvagon stretched along, point beyond point, for a distance 
of forty or fifty miles. The land rose with a long, gentle slope 
from the beaches of white sand, and in the distance stood the 
vapory peaks of high mountains. We sailed slowly along the 
outer edge of the islets, to which the larger island made a 
warm, rich background. The air was deliciously mild and pure, 
the sea smooth as glass, and the sky as fair as if it had never 
been darkened by a storm. Except the occasional gambols of 
the bonitas, or the sparkle of a fiying-fish as he leaped into the 
sun, there was no sign of life on these beautiful waters. 

Towards noon the gentle south-east breeze died away ; and 
we lay with motionless sails upon the gleaming sea. The sun 
hung over the mast-head and poured down a warm tropical lan- 
guor, which seemed to melt the very marrow in one's bones. 
For four hours we lay becalmed, when a light ripple stole along 
from the horizon, and we saw the footsteps of the welcome 
breeze long before we felt it. Grradually increasing, it bore us 
smoothly and noiselessly away from Busvagon and the rocky 
towers and obelisks, and at sunset we saw the phantomlike hills 
of the southern point of the island of Mindoro, forty miles 
distant. The night was filled with the glory of the full moon 
— a golden tropical radiance, nearly as lustrous, and far more 
soft and balmy, than the light of day — a mystic, enamored 
bridal of the sea and sky. The breeze was so gentle as to be 
felt, and no more ; the ship slid as silently through the water 



riCTDRESQUE ISLANDS. 505 

as if lier keel were muffled in silk ; and tlie sense of repose in 
motion was so sweet, so grateful to my travel-wearied senses, 
that I remained on deck until midnight, steeped in a bath of 
pure indolent happiness. 

Our voyage the next day was still more delightful. From 
dawn until dark we went slowly loitering past the lovely islands 
that gem those remote seas, until the last of them sank astern 
in the flush of sunset. Nothing can be more beautiful than 
their cones of never-fading verdure, draped to the very edge 
of the waves, except where some retreating cove shows its 
beach of snow-white sand. On the larger ones are woody val- 
leys, folded between the hills, and opening upon long slopes, 
overgrown with the cocoa-palm, the mango, and many a strange 
and beautiful tree of the tropics. The light, lazy clouds, suf- 
fused with a crimson flush of heat, that floated slowly through 
the upper heavens, cast shifting shadows upon the masses of 
foliage, and deepened, here and there, the dark-purple hue of 
the sea. Retreating behind one another until they grew dim 
and soft as clouds on the horizon, and girdled by the most 
tranquil of oceans, these islands were real embodiments of the 
joyous fancy of Tennyson, in his dream of the Indies, in 
" Locksley Hall." Here, although the trader comes, and the 
flags of the nations of far continents sometimes droop in the 
motionless air — here are still the heavy-blossomed bowers and 
the heavy-fruited trees, the summer isles of Eden in their pur- 
ple spheres of sea. The breeze fell nearly to a calm at noon- 
day, but our vessel still moved noiselessly southward, and island 
after island faded from green to violet, and from violet to the 
dim, pale blue that finally blends with the air. 

The next day was most taken up with calms. The captain 
22 



506 



and mates spent much of tlieir time in shifting the sails so as to 
get the most of the faint wind-flaws that reached us, watching 
for distant ripple-lines on the ocean, or whistling over the rail. 
In the afternoon land was descried ahead — the Cagayanes 
Islands, a little group in the middle of the Sooloo Sea. We 
passed between them about four o'clock, and had a fair view 
on either hand. The shores are smooth walls of perpendicular 
rock, about a hundred feet in height, and almost completely 
hidden under a curtain of rich vegetation. Here and there the 
rock falls away, leaving little beaches of sand, behind which rise 
thick forests of cocoa or palm. I could distinguish with the 
glass half a dozen bamboo huts on the shore. A few boats 
were drawn up on the beach. The islands looked so lovely as 
we passed them, in the soft lustre of sunset, that I longed for 
a day of calm, to go ashore where so few Europeans have ever 
set foot, and have a glance at the primitive barbarism of the 
natives. The sea still remained as smooth as a mountain lake. 
We saw great quantities of drift-wood, upon which boobies and 
cormorants perched in companies of two and three, and watched 
for fish as they drifted lazily along. In the neighborhood of 
the islands we frequently saw striped snakes, four or five feet 
in length. 

The lofty coast of Mindanao, one of the largest of the 
Philippine Islands, was visible at sunrise, on the 19th. Before 
long Basilan appeared in the south-east, and by noon we were 
in the mouth of the strait. The observation gave Lat. 7° 3^ N., 
Long. 121° E. Two vessels were descried ahead, a ship and a 
brig, both lying close in to Mindanao, and apparently becalmed. 
In fact, we could easily trace a belt of calm water near tb« 



STRAITS OF BASILAN. 507 

shore, caused by the high hills of the island, -which prevented 
the southern breeze from '^ blowing home." 

Four or five small islands — the commencement of the Soo- 
loo ArchijDclago — lie to the westward of Basilan. The strait 
is from six to eight miles wide at its narrowest part, and toler- 
ably free from dangerous points. To the north, the hills of 
;?,I:ndanao, completely mantled with forests, rise grandly to the 
height of near two thousand feet. The shore presents an almost 
impenetrable array of cocoa palms. There were two or three 
cleared spaces on the hills, and as we entered further into the 
strait, we could see with the glass not only some native huts, 
but the houses of Spanish residents on the shore. Still fur- 
ther, at the head of a little bight, and protected by a level 
island of palms, we saw the Spanish settlement of Sambooan- 
gan. There were several large two-story houses, and a white 
chapel, before which lay half a dozen small craft at anchor. 
A native proa put out from the shore, some distance ahead of 
us, and we at first thought she was making for us with a load 
of fruit. As she came nearer she hoisted a huge yellow flag, 
with a red ornamental border, and some large red characters in 
Chinese. There were six persons on board, and he who 
appeared to be the leader wore a yellow robe. The boat had 
an outrigger on each side, and was propelled by paddles and a 
light canvas sail. She came near us, but to our disappointment 
dropped astern and passed over to Basilan. 

The latter island is remarkably picturesque in its appear- 
ance, its long, wavy slopes of foliage shooting into tall conical 
peaks. In passing through the strait, these piles of eternal 
vegetation on either hand have an enchanting eff"ect. I took 
sketches of both islands, which preserved their outlines, but 



508 

could not give tlie least idea of their richness and beauty. We 
had a light westerly wind, with the tide in our favor, and just 
as the moon arose like a globe of gold, passed the eastern mouth 
of the strait and entered the Sea of Celebes. 

We now experienced a succession of calms and baffling 
winds for five days, as we stood south by west across the Sea of 
Celebes, making for the Straits of Macassar. There was an v^u- 
casional squall of an hour or two, which gave us a " slant " in 
the right direction. The wind at last shifted, so that we were 
able to run upon our course close-hauled, and on the afternoon 
of the 25 th we caught a distant and misty view of the Haring 
Islands. The next morning at sunrise, we saw the lofty head- 
land of Point Kaneoongan, in Borneo, at the western entrance 
of the straits. Cape Donda, in Celebes, thirty miles distant, ap- 
peared for a short time, but was soon hidden by showers. On 
the 27th, at noon, we were in 0° 5^ S., having crossed the 
Equator about 11 a. m., and thenceforth, for four days, we 
slowly loitered along through the Straits of Macassar, with 
light, variable winds, and seasons of dead, sultry calm. The 
mercury stood at 88^ in the coolest part of the ship. The sea 
was as smooth as a mirror, and as glossy and oily in its dark- 
blue gleam, as if the neighboring shores of Macassar had 
poured upon it libations of their far-famed unguent, Occa- 
sionally we saw the shores of Celebes, but so distant and dim 
that it was rather like a dream of land than land itself We 
walked the deck languidly, morning and evening, sat under the 
the awning by day, alternately dozing and smoking and read- 
ing, watched the drift-wood floating by — mangrove logs, with 
companies of sea-fowl making their fishing excursions — ate 



PASSING THE THOUSAND ISLANDS. 509 

for occupation, and slept with difficulty : and thus the days 



On the 2d of October a light south wind reached us, and 
we left the dim, far-off headlands of Celebes — the land of san- 
dal-wood groves and birds of Paradise. We made the twin 
rocks called " The Brothers," off the southern point of Borneo, 
and about noon passed between the islands of Moresses and 
Little Pulo Laut. The latter are noble piles of verdure, 
rising a thousand feet from the water, in long undulating out- 
lines. The Java Sea is a beautiful piece of water, compara- 
tively free from reefs and shoals, and rarely exceeding forty 
fathoms in depth, so that vessels may anchor in any part of it. 
Its surface is as smooth as a lake, and even when making eight 
or nine knots, there was scarcely any perceptible motion in the 
vessel. The temperature was delicious, and the south wind so 
bland, sweet and elastic, after the sultry, surcharged atmos- 
phere of Macassar Straits, that the change was perceptible in 
the temper and spirits of all on board. 

We had light but favorable winds, and for four days more 
stood across the Java Sea, averaging about 100 miles a day. 
The water was alive with snakes and flying-fish. Passing the 
Lubeck Islands and Carimon Java, we approached so near the 
Javanese shores that on the evening of the 6th the delicious 
land-breeze came off to us, bringing an odor of moist earth and 
vegetable exhalations. We expected to have a glimpse of Ba- 
tavia, but made considerable northing, so that we lost sight of 
the low Java coast before morning. At noon we made the 
Thousand Islands, and as they have been but very imperfectly 
explored, we were obliged to go completely to the northward 
of them, instead of taking one of the numerous channels be- 



610 INDIA, CHINA AND JAPAN. 

tween. ^hey are small and low, but thickly covert d with 
trees, among which the cocoa-palm predominates. I counted 
thirty- three islands within a sweep of a hundred degrees The 
wind being dead ahead, we stood on the northern tack until we 
made the North Watcher, and, then fetched a S. by E. course, 
the current setting us to windward. The same evening, how- 
ever, the wind changed, and before I turned into my berth, we 
were thirty miles off Angier Point, the last gateway interven- 
ing between us and the Indian Ocean. We had been twenty- 
eight days in making the voyage from Whampoa — a distance, 
as we sailed, of 2,613 miles. 



I 



I 



CHAPTER XLII. 

AROUND THE CAPE. 

Enterii g the Straits of Sunda— Malay Boats— The Mangosteen — Bargaining with the 
Natives— Scenery )f the Straits— Angier— Passing the Straits— Death on Board — 
The Indian Ocean- -A Submaiine Earthqual^e— A Tropical Sunset— A Fatal Escape 
— The Trade "Wind— Mozambique Channel— The Coast of Africa — Doubling the 
Cape — Southern Constellations— Distant View of Table Mountain — On the Atlantic 
— The Trades again — Restoration — A Slaver. 

I AROSE at sunrise on the morning of the 8th of Octoberj in 
time to see the Sea Serpent enter the Straits of Sunda. On 
our left, five or six miles distant, arose the lofty headland of 
Point St. Nicholas ; in front was the rock called " The Cap," 
and the island of " 'Thwart-the-Way," while the mountains 
of Sumatra were barely visible far to the west. We were 
scarcely abreast of the headland when two native prahus, or 
boats, were seea coming off to us, the boatmen laboring at their 
sweeps with a sharp, quick cry, peculiar to semi-barbaroua 
people. One of the boats was soon alongside, with a cargo of 
yams, plantains and fowls, with such fancy articles as shells, 
monkeys, parroquets and Java sparrows. The captain and 
crew were Malays, and nearly all spoke English more or less 
fluently. The former had an account-book, showing his deal- 



512 INDIA, CHINA AND JAPAN. 

ings with sliips, and a printed register from the Dutch Grovem- 
luent, containing notices of the vessels called upon in the straits. 
We were gratified to find that we had not been beaten, the 
shortest passage from Whampoa, previous to our own, being 
thirty days. 

The second boat soon arrived, and between the two Capt. 
Howland managed to procure about fifteen cwt. of yams, with 
abundant supplies of potatoes, fowls, and paddy. The fruits 
they brought off were plantains, cocoa-nuts, ripe and green, and 
a few mangosteensj which were then going out of season. The 
latter were mostly rotten, but the few fresh ones which we 
picked out were enough to convince me that its fame as the 
most exquisite of all fruits had not been overrated. The very 
look of the snow-white pulp, softly imbedded in its thick, juicy 
crimson husk, is refreshing ; and its melting coolness and sweet 
ness, relieved by the faintest mixture of a delicious acid flavor 
makes it the very nectar and ambrosia of the vegetable world, 
Certainly no other fruit is comparable to it in flavor and lus 
ciousness. 

While the boat went back to Angier for fresh supplies of 
paddy and other necessaries — an arrangement which deprived 
us of all chance of landing there — we slowly drifted down the 
straits with the tide, past Cap Rock and towards 'Thwart-the- 
Way. I was charmed with the beauty of the Javanese shore. 
Low hills, completely covered with foliage, rose from the water, 
with ascending upland slopes beyond, and groups of lofty moun- 
tains in the background. In the almost interminable wealth 
of tropical vegetation which covered the land, the feathery 
cocoa-palm and the massive foliage of the banyan could be 
plainly recognized. Passing the picturesque headlands and 



DEATH ON BOARD. 513 

leafy wildernesses of " 'Thwart-tlie-Way," we lay to off Angier, 
waiting for tlie boat. We were nearly two miles from sliore, 
but the scattered Malay village, the big banyan-tree, the 
Dutch fort, and the light-house, with its tiled roof, were all 
distinctly visible. The lofty promontory of Eajah Bassa, on 
the Sumatra side, loomed in the distance. The wind was blow- 
ing fresh from the south, and favorable for us, but we were 
obliged to lay to nearly an hour for our supplies, surrounded 
in the mean time with small boats, from which we purchased 
fish, shells, parroquets and Java sparrows. At last, all the 
fresh stores were shipped, and we ran off before a spanking 
breeze. Point St. Nicholas, Button Rock, Angier and 'Thwart- 
the-Way soon disappeared, and the superb conical peak of the 
island of Crockatoa rose on our lee bow. We saw Prince's 
island at dusk, on the weather bow, and entered the Indian 
Ocean before the twilight had wholly faded — having made the 
passage through the straits under unusually favorable auspices. 

At midnight a man who had been shipped by the Consul at 
Canton, died on board. He was an old sailor, who had fallen 
ill at Manilla, whence he had been sent to China, and there, by 
a blind course of drunkenness and harlotry, sealed his own 
doom. There was no hope of his recovery, for he had himself 
cut it off. It was a case of deliberate suicide. But he had 
probably survived all friends, all associations of home, all manly 
energy and virtue, all pleasure in even mere animal enjoyment, 
all hope of any thing better in life, and accepted death with 
a reckless insensibility which disarmed it of fear. He was 
buried at noon the next day, Capt. Howland reading the funeral 
service. 

•The next morning the change from the island seas of the 
22* 



514 



Indies„to the open ocean, was at once manifest in the dark-blue 
of the water, the paleness of the sky, the clearness and bracing 
freshness of the air, the wider stretch of the horizon, and the 
long, deliberate undulations of the sea, which gave our vessel a 
motion we had not felt for weeks before. Towards noon the 
wind abated, leaving us swaying uneasily to and fro, with the 
sails flapping heavily against the masts. 

On Monday evening, the 10th of October, an unusual inci- 
dent happened to us. The night was clear, and cooler than 
usual, with a light breeze, not more than three knots at most, 
and the same heavy swell which we had had for two days pre- 
vious. I was walking the quarter-deck with Mr. Cornell, the 
second mate, about a quarter past eleven o'clock, when the ship 
suddenly stopped, and shook so violently from stem to stern that 
every timber vibrated. This motion was accompanied by a dull 
rumbling, or rather humming noise, which seemed to come from 
under the stern. We were at first completely puzzled and 
bewildered by this unexpected circumstance, but a moment's 
reflection convinced us that it proceeded from an earthquake. 
Capt. Howland and Mr. Contee came on deck just in time to 
feel a second shock, nearly as violent as the first. Those who 
were below heard a strong hissing noise at the vessel's side. 
There did not appear to be any unusual agitation of the water, 
notwithstanding the vessel was so violently shaken. The 
length of time which elapsed, from first to last, was about a 
minute and a half. The breeze fell immediately afterwards, 
and we had barely steerage way until morning. 

The sunset on the following day was one of the most superb 
I ever saw. The sky was divided into alternate bands of pure 
blue and brilliant rose color, streaming upwards and outwards 



THE TRADE WIND. 



515 



from the sun, without any interfusion or blending of their hues. 
At the horizon the blue became amber-green, and then gold, 
and the rose-tint a burning crimson. A mountainous line of 
heavy purple clouds formed a foreground along the horizon, 
behind which the rayed sky shone with indescribable splendor, 
doubling its gorgeous hues on the glassy surface of the sea. 
There was a dead calm all night, and at noon the reckoning 
showed a progress of twenty-eight miles in twenty-four hours. 
The swell was worse than ever, and the sails seemed to be slowly 
beating themselves to pieces against the masts. 

On the morning of the 14th I lost a pretty little parroquet 
which I had bought at Angier. He had become so tame that 
I took him out of the cage to feed, and while to all appearance 
contentedly eating rice in my hand, he shot off suddenly, darted 
through the cabin like a flash, and out of one of the stern-ports. 
He was gone in an instant, and lost to me for ever — an instance 
that even freedom may be fatal. The afternoon was cloudy, 
with frequent squalls, but about midnight the wind came up 
out of the south and increased at such a rate, that by daylight 
we were making twelve knots an hour. The swell was still 
heavy, the sea covered with sparkling foam-caps, and the sky 
streaked with flying masses of cloud. The air had a bracing, 
exhilarating freshness and steadiness, which led us to hope that 
we had at last caught the long-desired " trades." 

Our hopes were entirely fulfilled. My log of the voyage 
showed the consecutive days' runs of 269, 235, 227, 261, and 247 
miles, during which time the ship kept on her course, scarce 
shifting a sail. TLe weather was gloriously clear and brilliant, 
with an elastic and bracing air, and a temperature ranging from 
70° to 77°. The sunsets were magnificent ; and at night the 



516 INDIA, CHINA AND JAI AN. 

new Southern constellations united themselves to the superb 
array of Northern stars, reaching from Taurus to Gemini, and 
formed one sublime and glittering band across the heavens. On 
the 21st, the wind abated, and we made but 148 miles, but it 
freshened the next day, and so held until -the 29th, when we 
achieved 268 miles, passed the latitude of Madagascar, and 
entered the Mozambique Channel. Here we encountered a 
heavy cross-sea and head current, but were cheered by the sight 
of the Cape pigeon and albatross, which wheeled and swooped 
across our wake, in lines as perfectly rhythmical and harmo- 
nious as strains of music. 

On the 1st of November, the wind shifted to the south-west, 
obliging us to run close-hauled. In the evening the sea became 
very rough, rolling in long, heavy swells, which indicated that 
we had entered the ocean current setting westward around the 
Cape. The ship plunged so violently that we came down to 
double-reefed topsails, and logged less than five knots. About 
four o'clock the next morning, while it was yet perfectly dark, 
the air was so pervaded with a fresh earthy smell, that the 
Captain tacked and stood off on a south-east course. Daylight 
showed us the bold, bleak coast of Africa, about five miles dis- 
tant. We had made the land about fifty miles south of Port 
Natal. At nine o'clock, however, we tacked again, the wind 
having shifted sufficiently to enable us to clear the land, 
although we ran within eight or ten miles of it during the whole 
day. The coast rose in long ridges of bleak hills, which, near 
the sea, were streaked with fields of barren sand, but further 
inland were green, and covered with thickets. There was not 
the slightest sign of cultivation, and I should have considered 



I 



SOUTHERN CONSTELLATIONS. 517 

it uninliabited, but for several large fires wHch were burning 
on the bills. 

The next morning, November 3d, found us becalmed off the 
Eastern headland of Algoa Bay. It was a warm, cloudless 
third of May in the lower hemisphere. We sounded, and 
finding fifty-five fathoms, endeavored to turn the calm to 
•account by fishing for cod ; but after sending down the line 
four times and having two hooks bitten off, a breeze came out 
of the east and began moving us forward too fast for the sport. 
The east wind nobly befriended us. At noon on the 4th we 
reached our Southern Ultima Thule (Lat. 35*^ 17'' S.), and 
headed westward for the Atlantic, fifty miles from the African 
coast. Cape Lagulhas, the southern extremity of the Conti- 
nent, was 97 miles distant. The sky was cloudless, the sun 
warm, the air deliciously pure, and just cool enough to make 
walking on the quarter-deck enjoyable. The sea was smooth, 
and no sign in air or ocean betokened that we were in the 
vicinity of the dreaded Cape of Storms. 

At night the young moon, Jupiter and Yenus, if not 
exactly in conjunction, were so near it as to shine as with the 
light of a single planet. But two or three degrees distant 
from each other, they formed a splendid triangle, the effect of 
which, on the roseate field of the austral sunset, was indescriba- 
bly magnificent. The sky was intensely clear, and towards 
midnight Taurus, Orion, Sirius, Canopus, the Southern Cross 
and the Magellan Clouds were all visible at once, bewildering 
the eye with their lustre. The next morning we could plainly 
distinguish, though at a great distance, the vapors hanging over 
the Cape and the headlands which bound False, or St. Simon's 
Bay, on the east. Towards noon they were lifted by the sun, 



518 INDIA, CHINA AND JAPAN. 

and th« far, faint, blue outline of Table Mountain, witb tbat 
of the four or five broken peaks forming the Cape, was dis- 
tinctly visible. Tliey were so precisely similar to the pictures 
I had seen, and to that in my imagination, that I recognized 
them at once, with a feeling of familiar acquaintance. They 
slowly passed astern, and at four o'clock faded out of sight 
behind us. And so farewell, savage old Africa ! Shall I ever 
see your shores again ? 

Now, at last, I felt that our prow was turned homewards — 
that our. keel ploughed the Atlantic, and the old far-off Asian 
world lay behind me. We were again sailing for the North 
Star, for the hemisphere where the strong heart of the world 
beats, and will beat for ever ! We were on our own side of the 
globe, and I felt — what I had not before felt, since leaving 
China — that every day was bringing me nearer home. The 
very sky was changed ; the sea was of a deeper blue ; the waves 
danced and sparkled with a merrier life ; the clouds gathered 
into larger masses and grouped themselves together with a sense 
of power, no longer like the slumberous vapors of the East, 
smouldering languidly away, in the fires of the sun. There 
was a prophecy of America in the very air, and I invoked a 
threefold benediction on the cold south-wind, which filled every 
inch of our towering piles of canvas, and carried us through the 
night at twelve knots an hour, dashing the ocean into phos- 
phoric foam. 

After making 532 miles in two days, the wind abated, and 
we dragged along slowly for three days more, through the vari- 
able latitudes, before taking the trade-winds again. * The alba- 
tross and Cape pigeon followed us, past their usual latitudes, 
until the increase of temperature, in the neighborhood of the 



A SLAVER. 519 

Tropics, warned them to return. The trade-wind, which we 
took on the 10th of November, was rather sluggish, and even 
with the addition of sky-sails and royal studding-sails, our pace 
was languid. The sea was unusually calm, and the swells over 
which we expected to be " rolling down to St. Helena," accord- 
ing to the sailor's ditty, did not make their appearance. No 
voyaging could be calmer and more agreeable, and our routine 
of life had come to be so settled and unvarying, that the day 
slipped by unawares. I employed this period of quiet and iso- 
lation in recalling and rewriting a large package of letters, 
descriptive of things in India and China, which had gone down 
in the steamer Lewiston, in the China Sea. Floating over that 
sleepy, deserted sea — for we saw but a single vessel — I was 
enabled to reproduce the Past so vividly that not a feature was 
wanting, and, almost word for word, the lost letters were 
restored. 

On the morning of the 11th we passed the meridian of 
Greenwich, and began to count western longitude. The only 
other incident was the sight of a rakish-looking brig, which 
passed several miles astern. Mr. Contee, who had made a 
cruise in the African Squadron, at once pronounced her to be a 
slaver. Her movements betrayed an evident anxiety to avoid 
us. 



CHAPTER XLin. 

A DAY AT ST. HELENA. 

Proposed Call at St. Helena — First View of the Island — Its CliflFs— Approach to James- 
town — View from the Anchorage— Landing — ^The Town and Eavine— Ascending 
the Gorge — Looking Down — " The Briars " — Summit of the Island — Pastoral Land- 
scape—Sea-View—Approach to Longwood — Eeception— The Billiard-Eoom — Scene 
of Napoleon's Death— His Bedroom— Desecration of Longwood— The New Eesi- 
dence — The Longwood Farm — The " Crown and Eose " — National Peculiarities — 
The Grave of Napoleon — The Old "Woman's "Welcome — Condition of the Grave — 
St. Helena Literature — The Old Woman's Admirable Story — Napoleon's Spring-^ 
Eeturn to Jamestown — Departure from the Island. 

The tliree passengers on board the Sea Serpent were greatly 
deligbited to learn from Capt. Howland, on the day when we 
crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, that the water was getting 
short, and he had therefore decided to touch at St. Helena for 
a fresh supply. We had already been more than sixty days 
on board, and the sea, with all its wonderful fascination, was 
growing monotonous. Here was an event which, in addition 
to its positive interest, would give us at least five days of anti- 
cipation and a week of active remembrance, virtually shorten- 
ing our voyage to that extent ; for at sea we measure time less 
by the calendar than by our individual sense of its duration. 



ST. HELENA. 521 

I have spent several montlis on shipboard, when, according to 
the almanac, barely a fortnight had elapsed. 

The trade-wind bore us slowly northward, and when I went 
on deck at sunrise, on the 14th of November, St. Helena was 
in sight, about twenty-five miles distant. It was a dark-blue 
mass, filling about twenty degrees of the horizon, and of nearly 
uniform elevation above the sea, but gradually resolved itself 
into sharper and more broken outlines as we approached. 
Except upon a lofty terrace on the southern side, where there 
was a tinge of green and some traces of fields, the coast pre- 
sented a frightfully rocky and inhospitable appearance. Nev- 
ertheless it displayed some grand efi"ects of coloring. The 
walls of naked rock, several hundred feet high, which rose 
boldly from the sea, in some places overhanging their base, 
were tinted as by 

" the deep-blue gloom 
Of tkunder-shower," 

the hollow chasms between them being filled with gorgeous 
masses of purple-black shadow, under the sultry clouds which 
hung over the island. At the south-eastern extremity were 
two pointed, isolated rocks, probably a hundred feet high. 
We stood around the opposite extremity of the island, making 
for the port of Jamestown, which faces the north-west. The 
coast on this side rises into two bold heads, one of which pro- 
jects outward like a gigantic capstan, while the other runs 
slantingly up to a pointed top, which is crowned with a signal 
station. The rock has a dark, bluish-slate color, with streaks 
of a warm reddish-brown, and the strata, burst apart in the 
centre, yet slanting upward toward each other like the sides of 



522 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

a volcatio, tell of uplieaval by some tremendous subterranean 
agency. The structure of the island is purely volcanic, and, 
except the rock of Aden, on the coast of Arabia, I never saw 
a more forbidding spot. 

The breeze increased as we drew near the island, but when 
we ran under the lee of the great cliffs, fell away almost 
entirely, so that we drifted lazily along within half a mile of 
them. At length a battery hove in sight, hewn in the face of 
the precipice, and anchored vessels, one by one, came out 
behind the point. We stood off a little, urged along by occa- 
sional flaws of wind, and in a short time the shallow bight 
which forms the roadstead of St. Helena lay before us. There 
was another battery near at hand, at the foot of a deep, barren 
glen, called Kupert's Yalley, from which a road, notched in the 
rock, leads around the intervening cliffs to the gorge, at the 
bottom of which Jamestown is built. A sea-wall across the 
mouth of this gorge, a row of ragged trees, weather-beaten by 
the gales of the Atlantic, and the spire of a church, were all 
that appeared of the town. The walls of the fort crowned the 
lofty cliff above, and high behind them towered the signal 
station, on the top of a conical peak, the loftiest in the island. 
The stone ladder which leads from the tower to the fort was 
marked on the face of the cliff like a white ribbon unrolled 
from its top. Inland, a summit covered with dark pine-trees, 
from the midst of which glimmered the white front of a coun- 
try mansion, rose above the naked heights of the shore. This 
was the only gleam of fertility which enlivened the terrible 
sterility of the view. 

Further in-shore a few gun-boats and water-boats lay at 
anchor, and some fishing-skiffs were pulling about. As we 



VISIT TO LONGWOOD. 523 

forged slowly along to a good anchoring ground, tlie American 
consul came off, followed by a boarding-officer, and we at once 
received permission to go ashore and make the most of our 
short stay. The consul's boat speedily conveyed us to the land- 
ing-place, at the eastern extremity of the town. Every thing 
had a dreary and deserted air. There were half-a-dozen men 
and boys, with Portuguese features and uncertain complexions, 
about the steps, a red-coated soldier at a sentry-box, and two or 
three lonely-looking individuals under the weather-beaten trees. 
Passing a row of mean houses, built against the overhanging 
rock, a drawbridge over a narrow moat admitted us within the 
walls. A second wall and gate, a short distance further, ushered 
us into the public square of Jamestown. Even at its outlet, 
the valley is not more than a hundred and fifty yards wide, and 
the little town is crowded, or rather jammed, deep in its bot- 
tom, between nearly perpendicular cliffs, seven or eight hundred 
feet in height. At the top of the square is the church, a plain 
yellowish structure, with a tall, square, pointed spire ; and 
beyond it Market street, the main thoroughfare of the little 
place, opens up the valley. 

A carriage — almost the only one in Jamestown — was pro- 
cured for Mrs. Howland ; my fellow-passenger, Parkman, pro- 
vided himself with a saddle-horse, and we set out for Longwood. 
We had a mounted Portuguese postillion, and rattled up the 
steep and stony main street in a style which drew upon us the 
eyes of all Jamestown. The road soon left the town, ascending 
the right side of the ravine by a very long and steep grade. 
Behind the town are the barracks of the soldiery and their 
parade-ground — all on a cramped and contracted scale ; then 
some dreary burial-grounds, the graves in which resembled 



624 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

heaps of cinders ; then a few private mansions, and green gar- 
den-patches, winding upwards for a mile or more. The depth 
and narrowness of the gorge completely shut out the air ; the 
heat, was radiated powerfully from its walls of black volcanic 
rock, and the bristling cacti and yuccas by the roadside, with 
full-crowned cocoa-palms below, gave it a fiery, savage, tropical 
character. The peak of the signal-station loomed high above 
us from the opposite side, and now the head of the ravine — a 
precipice several hundred feet high, over which fell a silver 
thread of water — came into sight. This water supplies the 
town and shipping, beside fertilizing the gardens in the bed of 
the ravine. It is clear as crystal, and of the sweetest and 
freshest quality. Looking backward, we saw the spire of the 
little church at the bottom projected against the blue plain of , 
ocean, the pigmy hulls of the vessels in the roads, and a great 
triangular slice of sea, which grew wider and longer as we 
ascended, until the horizon was full fifty miles distant. 

Near the top of the ravine there is a natural terrace about 
a quarter of a mile in length, lying opposite to the cascade. It 
contains a few small fields, divided by scrubby hedges, and, 
near the further end, two pleasant dwelling-houses, surrounded 
by a garden in which I saw some fine orange-trees. This is 
" The Briars," memorable for having been Napoleon's first res- 
idence on the island. The Balcombe family occupied the 
larger of the two dwellings, which is flanked by tall Italian 
cypresses, while the other building, which was then a summer 
pavilion, but was afterwards enlarged to accommodate the Em- 
peror and his suite, received him on the very night of his land- 
ing from the Bellerophon. It stands on a little knoll, over- 
looking a deep glen, which debouches into the main valley just 



THE GRAVE OF NAl'OLEON. 525 

below. The place is cheerful though solitary ; it has a shel- 
tered, sunny aspect, compared with the bleak heights of Long- 
wood, and I do not wonder that the great exile left it with 
regret. Miss Balcombe's account of Napoleon's sojourn at 
" The Briars," is among the most striking reminiscences of his 
life on the island. 

Just above the terrace the road turned, and, after a short 
ascent, gained the crest of the ridge, where the grade became 
easier, and the cool south-east trade-wind, blowing over the 
height, refreshed us after the breathless heat of the ravine. 
The road was bordered with pine-trees, and patches of soft 
green turf took the place of the volcanic dust and cinders. 
The flower-stems of the aloe-plants, ten feet in height, had 
already begun to wither, but the purple buds of the cactus were 
opening, and thick clusters of a watery, succulent plant were 
starred with white, pink, and golden blossoms. We had now 
attained the central upland of the island, which slopes down- 
ward in all directions to the summit of the sea-wall of cliffs. 
On emerging again from the wood, a landscape of a very dif- 
ferent character met our view. Over a deep valley, the sides 
of which were alternately green with turf and golden with 
patches of blossoming broom, we looked upon a ridge of table- 
land three or four miles long, near the extremity of which, sur- 
rounded by a few straggling trees, we saw the houses of Long- 
wood. In order to reach them, it was necessary to pass around 
the head of the intervening valley. In this direction the land- 
scape was green and fresh, dotted with groves of pine and white 
country-houses. Flocks of sheep grazed on the turfy hill-sides, 
and a few cows and horses ruminated among the clumps of 
broom. Down in the bottom of the valley, I noticed a small 



526 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

enclosure, planted with Italian cypresses, and with a square 
white olbject in the centre. It did not need the postillion's 
words to assure me that I looked upon the Grave of Napoleon. 

Looking eastward towards the sea, the hills became bare 
and red, gashed with chasms and falling off in tremendous pre- 
cipices, the height of which we would only guess from the dim 
blue of the great sphere of sea, whose far-off horizon was drawn 
above their summits, so that we seemed to stand in the centre 
of a vast concavity. In color, form, and magnificent desola- 
tion, these hills called to my mind the mountain region sur- 
rounding the Dead Sea. Clouds rested upon the high, pine- 
wooded summits to the west of us, and the broad, sloping val- 
ley, on the other side of the ridge of Longwood, was as green 
as a dell of Switzerland. The view of those fresh pasture 
slopes, with their flocks of sheep, their groves and cottages, was 
all the more delightful from its being wholly unexpected. 
Where the ridge joins the hills, and one can look into both 
valleys at the same time, there is a small tavern, with the 
familiar English sign of the " Crown and Rose." Our road 
now led eastward along the top of the ridge, over a waste tract 
covered with clumps of broom, for another mile and a half, 
when we reached the gate of the Longwood Farm, A broad 
avenue of trees, which all lean inland from the stress of the 
trade-wind, conducts to the group of buildings, on a bleak spot, 
overlooking the sea, and exposed to the full force of the wind. 
Our wheels rolled over a thick, green turf, the freshness of 
which showed how unfrequent must be the visits of strangers. 

On reaching the gate, a small and very dirty boy, with a 
milk-and-molasses complexion, brought out to us a notice 
pasted on a board, intimating that those who wished to see the 



627 



residence of the Emperor Napoleon must pay two shillings 
a-piece in advance ; children half-price. A neat little English- 
woman of that uncertain age which made me hesitate to ask 
her whether she had ever seen the Emperor, was in attendance, 
to receive the fees and act as cicerone. We alighted at a small 
green verandah, facing a wooden wing which projects from the 
eastern front of the building. The first room we entered was 
whitewashed, and covered all over with the names of visitors, 
in charcoal, pencil, and red chalk. The greater part of them 
were French. " This," said the little woman, " was the Em- 
peror's billiard-room, built after he came to live at Longwood. 
The walls have three or four times been covered with names, 
and whitewashed over." A door at the further end admitted 
us into the drawing-room, in which Napoleon died. The ceil- 
ing was broken away, and dust and cobwebs covered the bare 
rafters. The floor was half-decayed, almost invisible through 
the dirt which covered it, and the plastering, falling off, dis- 
closed in many places the rough stone walls. A winnowing- 
mill and two or three other farming utensils, stood in the cor- 
ners. The window looked into a barn-yard filled with mud 
and dung. Stretched on a sofa, with his head beside this win- 
dow, the great conqueror, the " modern Sesostris," breathed his 
last, amid the delirium of fancied battle and the bowlings of a 
storm which shook the island. The corner-stone of the jamb, 
nearest which his head lay, has been quarried out of the wall, 
and taken to France. 

Beyond this was the dining-room, now a dark, dirty barn- 
floor, filled to the rafters with straw and refuse timbers. We 
passed out into a cattle-yard, and entered the Emperor's bed- 
room. A horse and three cows were comfortably stalled there- 



528 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

in, aild the floor of mud and loose stones was covered with 
dung and litter. " Here," said tlie guide, pointing to an un- 
usually filthy stall in one corner, " was the Emperor's bath- 
room. Mr. Solomon (a Jew in Jamestown) has the marble 
bathing-tub he used. Yonder was his dressing room " — a big 
brinded calf was munching some grass in the very spot — " and 
here " (pointing to an old cow in the nearest corner) " his at- 
tendant slept." So miserable, so mournfully wretched was the 
condition of the place, that I regretted not having been content 
•with an outside view of Longwood. On the other side of the 
cattle-yard stands the houses which were inhabited by Count 
Montholon, Las Casas, and Dr. O'Meara; but at present they 
are shabby, tumble-down sheds, whose stone walls alone have 
preserved their existence to this day. On the side facing 
the sea, there are a few pine-trees, under which is a small 
crescent-shaped fish-pond, dry and nearly filled with earth and 
weeds. Here the Emperor used to sit and feed his tame fish. 
The sky, overcast with clouds, and the cold wind which blew 
steadily from the sea, added to the desolation of the place. 

Passing through the garden, which is neglected, like the 
house, and running to waste, we walked to the new building 
erected by the Government for Napoleon's use, but which he 
never inhabited. It is a large quadrangle, one story high, 
plain but commodious, and with some elegance in its arrange- 
ment. It has been once or twice occupied as a residence, but 
is now decaying from very neglect. Standing under the brow 
of the hill, it is sheltered from the wind, and much more cheer- 
ful in every respect than the old mansion. We were conducted 
through the empty chambers, intended for billiard, dining, 
drawing, and bed-rooms. In the bath-room, where yet stands 



MILDNESS OF AMERICAN CHARACTER 529 

the wooden case which enclosed the marble tub, a flock of 
geese were luxuriating. The curtains which hung at the win- 
dows were dropping to pieces from rot, and in many of the 
rooms the plastering was cracked and mildewed by the leakage 
of rains through the roof. Near the building is a neat cottage, 
in which General Bertrand and his family formerly resided. It 
is now occupied by the gentleman who leases the farm of Long- 
wood from the Government. The farm is the largest on the 
island, containing one thousand acres, and is rented at £315 a 
year. The uplands around the house are devoted to the rais- 
ing of oats and barley, but grazing is the principal source of 
profit. 

I plucked some branches of geranium and fragrant helio- 
trope from the garden, and we set out on our return. I pre- 
vailed upon Mr. Parkman to take my place in the carriage, and 
give me his horse as far as the " Crown and Rose," thereby 
securing an inspiring gallop of nearly two miles. Two Eng- 
lishmen, of the lower order, had charge of the tavern, and 
while I was taking a glass of ale, one of them touched his hat 
very respectfully, and said : " Axin' your pardon, sir, are you 
from the States ? " I answered in the affirmative. " There ! " 
said he, turning to the other and clapping his hands, " I knew 
it ; I 've won the bet." " What were your reasons for think- 
ing me an American ?" I asked. " Why," said he, " the gen- 
tlemen from the States are always so mild / I knowed you vf as 
one before you got off the horse." 

We sent the carriage on by the road, to await .us on the other 

side of the glen, and proceeded on foot to the Grave. The path 

led down through a garden filled with roses and heliotropes. 

The peach-trees were in blosom, and the tropical loqudt, which 
23 



530 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

I had seen growing in India and China, hung full of ripe yellow 
fruit. As we approached tho little enclosure at the bottom of 
the glen, I, who was in advance, was hailed by a voice crying 
out, " This way, sir, this way ! " and, looking down, saw at 
the gate a diminutive, wrinkled, old, grizzly-headed, semi-negro, 
semi-Portuguese woman, whom I at once recognized as the 
custodienne of the tomb, from descriptions which the officers ot 
the Mississippi had given me. " Ah ! there you are ! " said I ; 
" I knew it must be you," " Why, Captain ! " she exclaimed ; 
" is that you ? How you been this long while ? I didn't 
know you was a-comin', or I would ha' put on a better dress, 
for, you see, I was a-washin' to-day. " Dickey ! " — addressing 
a great, fat, white youth of twenty-two or twenty-three, with a 
particularly stupid and vacant face — "run up to the garden, 
and git two or three of the finest hohys as ever you can, for the 
Captain and the ladies ! " 

At the gate of the enclosure hung a placard, calling upon 
all visitors to pay, in advance, the sum of one shilling and six- 
pence each, before approaching the tomb. This touching tes- 
timony of respect having been complied with, we were al- 
lowed to draw near to the empty vault, which, for twenty 
years, enshrined the corpse of Napoleon. It is merely an ob- 
long shaft of masonry, about twelve feet deep, and with a rude 
roof thrown over the mouth, to prevent it being filled by the 
rains. A little railing surrounds it, and the space between is 
planted with geraniums and scarlet salvias. Two willows — one 
of which has been so stript by travellers, that nothing but the 
trunk is left — shade the spot, and half-a-dozen monumental 
cypresses lift their tall obelisks around. A flight of steps leads 
to the bottom of the vault, where the bed of masonry which 



DESECRATION OF NaPOLEOX's ToMB. 581 

enclosed the coffin still remains. I descended to the lowest 
step, and there found, hanging against the damp wall, a written 
tablet stating that the old woman, then waiting for me at the 
top, told an admirable and excellent story about the burial of 
Napoleon, which travellers would do well to extract from her, 
and that one shilling was but a fair compensation for the 
pleasure she would afford them. Appended to the announce- 
ment were the following lines., which I transcribed on the 
epot: 

" FiUMLY strike my bounding lyre, 

Poet's muse can never tire, 

Nosegays gay and flowers so wild, 

Climate good and breezes mild. 

Humbly ask a shilling, please, 

Before the stranger sails the seas. 
Napoleon was in love with a lady so true. 
He gave her a gold ring set with diamonds and pearls, 
Which was worthy the honors of many brave earb. 
But she died, it is said, in her bloom and her beauty, 

So his love broken-hearted 

For ever was parted. 
He drank of the spring and its water so clear, 
Which was reserved for his use, and he held it most dear. 

So he died, so he died, 

In the bloom of his pride. 
In his life he sat under yon lone willow-tree, 
And studied the air, the earth, and the sea ; 
His arms were akimbo, his thoughts far away. 
He lived six months at the house on the hill, at his 

friend's, the brave General Bertraxd by name, and 
from thence he would come 

To visit the spot. 

And stand in deep thought, 

Forgotten or not.* 



532 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

ir I bad been saddened by tbe neglect of Longwood, I 
was disgusted by tbe profanation of tbe tomb. Is tbere not 
enougb reverence in St. Helena, to prevent tbe grave wbich a 
great name bas ballowed, from being defiled witb sucb abomi- 
nable doggerel ? And tbere was tbe old woman, wbo, baving 
seen me read tbe notice, immediately commenced ber admirable 
and interesting story in tbis wise : " Six years be- lived upon 
tbe island. He came bere in 1815, and be died in 1821. Six 
years be lived upon tbe island. He was buried witb bis bead 
to tbe east. Tbis is tbe east. His feet was to tbe west. Tbis 
is tbe west. Wbere you see tbat brown dirt, tbere was big 
bead. He wanted to be buried beside bis wife Josepbine; 
but, as tbat couldn't be done, be was put bere. Tbey put bim 
bere because be used to come down bere witb a silver mug in 
his pocket, and take a drink out of tbat spring. Tbat's tbe 
reason be was buried bere. Tbere was a guard of a sargeant 
and six men up tbere on tbe bill, all tbe time be was down bere 
a-drinkin' out of tbe spring witb bis silver mug. Tbis was tbe 
way be walked." Here tbe old woman folded her arms, tossed 
back ber grizzly bead, and strode to and fro with so ludicrous an 
attempt at dignity, that, in spite of myself, I was forced into 
laughter. " Did you ever see him ? " I asked. " Yes, Cap- 
tain," said she, " I seed him a many a time, and I always said, 
' Good mornin,' Sir,' but he never bad no conversation with 
me." A draught of the cool and delicious lymph of Napo- 
leon's Spring completed the farce. I broke a sprig from one 
of the cypresses, wrote my name in the visitor's book, took tbe 
" boky" of gillyflowers and marigolds, which Dickey had col- 
lected, and slowly re-mounted the opposite side of tbe gen. 
My thoughts involuntarily turned from the desecrated grave to 



DEPARTURE FROM ST. HELENA. 633 

that fitting sepulchre where he now rests, under the banners of 
a hundred victorious battle-fields, and guarded bj the timeworn 
remnant of his faithful Old Guard. Let Longwood be levelled 
to the earth, and the empty grave be filled up and turfed over ! 
Better that these memorials of England's treachery should be 
seen no more ! 

We hastened back to Jamestown, as it was near sunset. 
The long shadows already filled the ravine, and the miniature 
gardens and streets below were more animated than during the 
still heat of the afternoon. Capt. Howland was waiting for us, 
as the ship was ready to sail. Before it was quite dark, we 
had weighed anchor, and were slowly drifting away from the 
desolate crags of the island. The next morning, we saw again 
the old unbroken ring of the sea. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

HOSIEWARD. 

Trade Weatlier- -Phosphorescence of the Sea— Ocean Nymphs — Butterflies in Mid- 
Ocean — The North-East Trades — A Gale off the Dermudas — ^Nautical Alms-Giving 
—The Gulf Stieam— Escape from Cape TIattera.*— Fair Wind— Winter Weather— 
The Last Day of tlie Voyage — Landing in New York — Retrospect. 

For three days after leaving St. Helena we had calm, sluggish 
weather, but on the 17th took the trade-wind again, and for five 
days thereafter averaged 200 miles a day. The wind was 
steady, dead astern, and the sea calm, with very little swell. 
The sky was overcast, and the atmosphere sultry, with a tem- 
perature ranging from 80*^ to 85°. Flying-fish appeared in 
greater quantities than I ever noticed before. The phospho- 
rescence of the sea was wonderful. The first half of the night 
was dark, as the moon was entering her last quarter, and the 
ship's wake was a dazzling trail of silver fire. The rudder 
dashed out of the darkness clusters of luminous globes about 
six inches in diameter, which scattered and spread, growing 
brighter as they approached the surface. The light rippling of 
the waves, far and wide, kindled brilliant sparkles, which stud- 



THE NORTH-EAST TRADES. 535 

ded the watery firmament like stars, to which the long, wavy, 
Bhining wake of our vessel formed the Milky Way. One who 
leaned over the stern asked me whether those fiery globes were 
not the astral lamps with which the Undines lighted their sub- 
oceanic caverns; but I refused to accept the fancy. The 
imagination positively forbids any such poetical creatures to 
inhabit the vast desert spaces of ocean. The Undines are the 
nymphs of rivers and fountains ; the mermaid only haunts the 
shore. The mid-sea is too vast, too cold in its barren sublimity, 
to be peopled by human dreams. 

At midnight, on the 2^th of December, we crossed the 
Equator in Long. 30'^ W., having been fifty-nine days in the 
Southern Hemisphere. We hoped to have taken the north-east 
trades soon afterwards, but were tantalized for a week with 
calms, and light, variable winds, during which we did not 
average more than 125 miles a day. On the 1st of December, 
in Lat. 12° N. a large butterfly and two dragon-flies came on 
board. The nearest land, the coast of Guiana, was more than 
900 m^es distant. I have never seen it stated that these insects 
are capable of such long flights. 

We had been on board the Sea Serpent eighty-one days, and 
our hopes of spending Christmas at home were rapidly dimin- 
ishing, when the long-desired trade-wind struck us. On the 2d 
of December we made 216 miles; on the 3d, 265 miles; and 
on the 4th, three hundred miles, which was our best day's run 
during the voyage. Our good ship fairly whistled through the 
water, cutting her way so smoothly that there was scarcely 
foam enough before her bows to throw a scud over the fore- 
castle, or wake enough behind her stern to tell that she had 
passed. The beautiful wave-lines of her counter allowed the 



536 INDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN. 

dead water to close as passively as if the ocean had not been 
disturbed. 

On the morning of December the 11th, in Lat. 32° N. and 
off the lee of the Bermudas, the wind hauled round to the 
north-west and blew half a gale for the two following days, 
during which we ran westward under close-reefed topsails. So 
it came to pass that on the 14th we were two degrees west of 
New York, and somewhere off Darien, in Georgia. The wind 
then shifted more to the westward, and by noon on the 1 6th, 
we were in the edge of the Gulf Stream, about 75 miles to the 
south-east of Cape Fear. Three or four vessels bound north, 
were in sight, apparently driven under the lee of Cape Hat- 
teras, like ourselves, by the violence of the northern gale. In 
the afternoon, an hermaphrodite brig, which had risen on the 
weather bow, stood down towards us and we saw a boat put off 
from her. We suspected at first that the brig might be a relief 
vessel, but were soon undeceived by the boat coming alongside. 
A raw, rough fellow, in a flannel shirt and red cap, came over 
the side, and stated that the brig was a Nova Scotian, bound 
from Magna to Cape Breton, had been out twenty days, and 
had but four days' provisions on board. He was on a begging 
errand, and was successful enough to get a barrel each of flour, 
bread, pork and beef. The brig had encountered strong north- 
erly and north-easterly winds for the previous eight days. The 
boat's crew were hale, athletic Nova-Scotians, and it was 
refreshing to see such well-knit, sinewy frames, such bold, 
hearty features, and such ruddiness of warm and healthy blood. 
As the Bermudas had not suffered us to pass, I hoped that the 
Bailor's couplet would apply both ways, and that Cape Hatteras 
would let us off easily. On Saturday morning, the 17th, a 



ESCAPE FROM CAPE HATTERAS. 537 

breeze sprang up from the south-east. Gradually increasing, it 
hauled to the northward and westward, and by noon we were 
dashing on our course at the rate of ten knots. The sky was 
too overcast to obtain an observation, but according to the 
reckoning we were in Lat. 35^^ 16^ N. and Long. 75^ 17^ W. 
At 2 p. M. we ran across the inner edge of the Gulf Stream, 
and came at once upon soundings. The line of junction between 
the dark-blue water of the Gulf, and the pale-green of the 
shoals was marked with wonderful distinctness. The stern of 
our vessel was in the former, while the latter reached to her 
waist. Within the distance of a ship's length, the temperature 
of the sea changed from 72° to 62 '^. The water immediately 
became of a paler green, and we felt an ugly ground swell. 
At the same instant Mr. Cornell discerned land off the port 
beam, and a single glance sufficed to show that it was Cape 
Hatteras, which, according to our reckoning, should have been 
weathered two hours before. The current of the Gulf Stream 
had evidently been much retarded by the strong north-eastern 
gales. 

It blew hard during the night, and there was a very heavy 
sea in the stream, but on soundings the water was smoother. 
We ran the whole night with no other sail than close-reefed 
fore and main topsails, and reefed foresail. In the morning the 
sky was clear and cold, and the air for the first time biting and 
wintry, rendering our heaviest clothing necessary to support the 
sudden change from the Tropics. The wind gradually veered 
to W. N. W., but by noon we were off Cape Henlopen. We ran 
close-hauled all day, striving to get to windward in order to 
make Sandy Hook the next morning, but found ourselves at 
Bunrise about 40 miles to the eastward of it. The transition 



638 ISDIA, CHINA, AND JAPAN, 

to a Winter climate was like a cold-plunge bath. The ther- 
mometer sank to 25° and water froze on deck. At noon a 
pilot-boat hove iu sight, running down towards us. The ship 
was put about, in order to meet her, but this movement grad- 
ually brought a bark, which was to windward of us, between us 
and the boat, and as the latter hoisted signal, the boat was 
obliged to give her the only pilot aboard. 

We had a tedious night, of alternate calms and snow-squalls, 
and I slept very little, out of anxiety lest a stiff nor 'wester 
should spring up and blow us out to sea again. But by morn- 
ing we had a pilot aboard, and taking advantage of a shift of 
the wind, made a tack which brought us in sight of Sandy 
Hook and of two steam-tugs. At ten o'clock the Leviathan 
had grappled us ; the useless sails were furled, and we sped 
surely and swiftly, in the clear winter sunshine, up the outer 
bay, through the Narrows and into the noble harbor of New 
York. The hills of Staten Island glittered with snow ; the 
trees had long been bare and the grass dead ; and for the first 
time in nearly three years, I looked upon a winter landscape. 
It was the 20th of December, and 101 days since our departure 
from Whampoa. We rapidly approached the familiar and 
beloved city, and at 2 p. m. I landed on one of the East River 
piers. 

I had left New York on the 28th of August, 1851, and had 
thus been absent two years and four months. During this 
time I had visited most of the countries of Europe, ascended 
the Nile to the Negro kingdoms of Central Africa, journeyed in 
Palestine, Asia Minor, and India, visited China twice, and 
taken part in the American expedition to Japan. I had 
travelled altogether about fifty thousand miles, and in all my 



RETROSPECT. 639 

wanderings, in all my intercourse with men of whatever race or 
clime, had been received with kindness and attended by uniform 
good fortune. Let me hope that the reader, who has had the 
patience to accompany me through the narrative of this long 
and adventurous journey, will arrive at its close with the same 
faith in those innate virtues of human nature which no degrada- 
tion can obscure, and the same dependence on that merciful 
Providence, whoso protection extends over all lands and seas. 




















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